The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Gaza City

Israel pressed its assault against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with a series of strikes on Saturday, killing at least 22 Palestinians, including three children, medical officials said.

The fighting was concentrated in and around the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where Israeli special forces crept in just after midnight followed by a wider incursion involving tanks and helicopters. Doctor Muawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza emergency medical services, told AFP at least 20 people were, most of them by a "great number of rockets fired by Israeli planes" in and around the camp and the adjacent town of Jabaliya. Witnesses also reported clashes in the nearby Tufah neighbourhood in northern Gaza City. The dead included at least seven civilians, medics said, including a 12-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother, who relatives said were killed by shrapnel as they slept inside their home.

Five militants from the Islamist Hamas movement and another two from Islamic Jihad were killed in the operation, as warplanes and tanks pounded the camp with missiles and fighters exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers. At least five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the operation, the army said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops had killed at least 15 Palestinian militants, "all of them planting explosive devices or shooting."