Israeli tank rips shell into crowd

GAZA CITY - Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians, including some torn apart by a tank shell, in a major raid into a militant stronghold in the Gaza Strip, after a suicide bomber had killed 15 people in Israel.

The tank round crashed into a crowd trying to hose down a commercial building set ablaze during the incursion into Jabalya refugee camp that triggered hours of pitched fighting, witnesses and medics said.

The Army had no immediate information on the firing of the shell, which blew off the head of at least one man.

Yesterday's bus bombing in the port city of Haifa, the first suicide attack in Israel for two months, and the Israeli counter-moves have battered American hopes of dampening violence ahead of any war against Iraq.

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron identified the bomber as Imran Salim al Qawasmeh, a 21-year-old activist for the Islamic militant group Hamas.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said a letter praising the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington was found on the bomber's body.

Israel's initial military response appeared to focus on Gaza, a stronghold of Islamic fighters.

In addition to the dead in Jabalya, medical officials said at least 40 people were wounded in fighting in the camp, in which Israeli helicopters raked streets with machinegun fire trying to pick off scores of gunmen scrambling to take up positions.

No Israeli casualties were reported.

Brigadier-General Gadi Shamni, Israel's Gaza brigade commander, said the Jabalya operation was not a retribution for the Haifa attack but was a continuation of an offensive against militants in the area that had begun two weeks ago.

Jabalya is a hotbed of Islamic militants at the forefront of the Palestinian uprising for independence in Gaza and the West Bank.

Troops blew up family homes of at least two Hamas militants, witnesses said. Israel has a policy of demolishing militants' houses to try to deter violence.

Israel's security cabinet, in a meeting after yesterday's suicide bombing, decided to step up military action against Palestinian "terrorist" cells and impose a total blockade on the nearby West Bank until Monday, Israeli security sources said.

The new rightist Israeli Government, which took office a week ago has ministers backing a harder line against the revolt than the previous broad coalition, including a possible expulsion of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Eighteen Palestinians were killed in an Army raid into Jabalya last April at a time of escalating Palestinian suicide attacks.

- REUTERS