UN angry at Gaza deaths

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has accused Israel of undermining a new Middle East peace drive by attacking a Gaza City neighbourhood and killing at least 12 Palestinians.

Annan believes such Israeli military incursions "contradict the international community's efforts to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process following the presentation of the 'road map' to the parties", chief UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said, referring to the new peace plan set out on Thursday by international mediators.

"He stresses that such actions, including the reported house demolitions, are contrary to international humanitarian law," Eckhard said.

Israeli tanks backed by helicopters thrust into a Palestinian militant stronghold near Gaza City late on Thursday, killing at least 12 Palestinians, including a 2-year-old toddler, in a gunfight, witnesses said.

The raid followed the release of the road map to Middle East peace, which outlines steps for an end to 31 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

The road map is backed by the "Quartet" of Middle East advisers - the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.

Annan, who remains convinced that there is no military solution to the conflict, called on Israel to work with Mahmoud Abbas, the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, and urged all parties to work for early implementation of the road map, Eckhard said.

The Gaza raid sent a strong signal that Israel would press ahead with such operations despite the new proposal to end 31 months of bloodshed.

Residents of the Shijaia neighbourhood outside Gaza City said Israeli forces backed by helicopter gunships laid siege to the family home of a militant from the Islamic group Hamas and demolished the building after a fierce gunbattle.

Witnesses said six of the dead were civilians, including the 2-year-old, a 13-year-old boy and a 17-year-old, and six were militants. In the West Bank, three Palestinian gunmen were killed in clashes with Israeli troops in two separate incidents.

Hamas, together with an armed offshoot of the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and reformist Prime Minister Abbas, claimed responsibility for a Tel Aviv suicide bombing that killed three people on Wednesday.

Arafat said the Gaza incursion was a massacre and Israel's answer to the peace plan presented by the Quartet and rejected by Palestinian militants.

Israeli officials say they will not change the way they confront an uprising for statehood until the Palestinians show they are cracking down on militants. Both sides are required to end violence under the road map.

"As long as the Palestinians do not assume responsibility for security in the areas under their jurisdiction, Israel unfortunately must act to defend its civilians," said Dore Gold, an Israeli Government spokesman.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, on a visit to Madrid, sounded a note of caution to both sides at the start of a trip to Europe and the Middle East to promote Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking in the aftermath of the Iraq war.

"We've got to get beyond this period of suicide bombings and retaliatory actions or other defensive actions that are taken ... ," Powell told a news conference. "We can't let these sorts of incidents immediately contaminate the road map."

The Gaza raid targeted Youssef Abu Heen and his two brothers, all Hamas men whom the Israeli Army said had been involved in organising "terror attacks" on Israelis.

Israeli Brigadier-General Gadi Shamni said soldiers surrounding the house called on the militants to give themselves up, but the men responded with gunfire.

Hospital officials said the three brothers were killed in the ensuing gunbattle.

Ahmed Ayyad, a blacksmith, said his 2-year-old son, Amir, was killed by a bullet to the head as the toddler stood near a window facing Israeli troops.

"I could not help him," Ayyad said, choking back tears at the morgue. "What road map? It is nonsense ... the Israelis do not want peace - you can ask my son."

Shamni said gunmen had fired on troops from positions in houses near the Abu Heen home.

Israel said Powell was expected to arrive for talks on Friday.

- REUTERS