The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Gaza City

Eleven Palestinians, including a six-month-old baby, were killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday while Palestinian rockets killed an Israeli in a sharp escalation of violence.

Following a day of unrest, Israeli helicopters launched a night raid on the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza, firing three missiles and seriously damaging the five-story building, witnesses said. According to a hospital source, the baby was killed in the attack, with witnesses reporting damage to houses surrounding the ministry and at least 20 other casualties. The deadliest attack occurred earlier in the day in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis where five Hamas fighters were killed in an Israeli army raid which also wounded one person, medical sources told AFP.

A second raid on the same site moments later injured another three people. Hamas then claimed responsibility for what was the first killing of an Israeli by Gaza rocket fire since May 2007 -- before the movement seized power in Gaza in June -- saying it had been to avenge the death of its militants.