Israeli fire kills six Palestinians in Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Six Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip, while the West Bank military chief of the hardline Islamic Jihad faction died after being wounded a week ago.

Five Palestinians were killed and three wounded by tank fire in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, where Israeli troops have been conducting operations since Saturday night, hospital officials said Wednesday.

The operation is part of a two-month Israeli offensive in the increasingly lawless territory that has targeted militants but often killed civilians.

According to witnesses, two Shejaiya residents, Rami al-Gharabli, 27, and Yasser al-Gharabli, 25, were trying to escape their house encircled by Israeli tanks when they were hit.

Two other men, Raed Isbita, 23, and Mohand Jindiya, 23, attempted to help the pair but were struck in turn.

Another man, Salman Abu Qunbus, 25, was killed in a separate incident in Shejaiya.

According to witnesses, all five were civilians.

An army spokesman said however that the tanks fired after "armed men approached troops operating in Shejaiya".

Fifteen Palestinians have been killed in the neighborhood since the Israeli operation began there on Saturday.

The Israeli army said it had discovered a large tunnel, 13 meters (yards) deep and 150 meters long, running from a house in Shejaiya towards the Karni crossing with Israel, and released photographs of the tunnel.

"Our forces discovered a very large tunnel of 150 meters in length on August 28, which was dug beginning from a house in Shejaiya in Gaza until the Karni terminal," a transfer point for goods between the strip and Israel, the spokesman said.

"The tunnel was meant to be used for an attack on the terminal," he added.

"Our intelligence services alerted us to its existence, along with other planned strikes, and that is why the Karni terminal has often been closed during the past few months."

Meanwhile in northern Gaza, a 24-year-old mentally handicapped man was killed overnight by Israeli gunfire after he approached the border with Israel, hospital officials said.

At least 201 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed in the Gaza Strip since June 28, when Israel launched a massive offensive to stop rocket attacks and recover a soldier captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid that left two other troops dead.

In the West Bank, Hossam Jaradat, 40, the head of the armed wing of the hardline Palestinian faction Islamic Jihad there, died from wounds sustained during an Israeli commando operation on August 23 in the town of Jenin.

Jaradat, whom Israel held responsible for numerous attacks against the Jewish state, suffered head wounds and had been in critical condition in a hospital in Nablus.

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