Israeli tanks fire killed three Palestinians and wounded at least 31 others overnight during an incursion into the Gaza Strip, just hours after Palestinians and Israelis met to secure a ceasefire.
Fierce confrontations between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli troops took place after the Israeli tanks entered the southern town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, hospital sources said, cited by the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
WAFA added that 14 Palestinian houses were destroyed in the attack.
According to the agency, Khaled Abu Habib, aged about 20, was killed during the clash, while Mahmud Al Shaher, 24, and Akram Abou Lidba, 30, died later in hospital of head injuries.
Among the wounded, the conditions of 10 are serious, medical sources said.
Palestinian security sources said late Wednesday five Israeli tanks, accompanied by bulldozers, had rolled into the southern Gaza Strip and had opened fire on a refugee camp near Rafah.
Earlier Wednesday, at Gaza airport not far from Rafah, a Palestinian youth was killed and 11 others were wounded by Israeli occupation troops.
The earlier attack took place as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat agreed on a package of measures to stamp out violence and restore trust, almost a year to the day since the start of the Intifada.
The United States welcomed the agreement between the two as "an important first step" towards peace and said it would be stepping up its role in the region, said AFP.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell Powell said progress by Arafat and Peres meant the United States could expand its engagement in the region.
"We'll be following that progress and taking a more active role as the meetings begin to one follow the other," Powell told reporters after holding talks in Washington with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.
Powell did not elaborate, but senior US officials said the increased role would likely be take the form of participating in security meetings that are to begin Friday.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer urged the Israelis and Palestinians "to seize the moment and exercise maximum efforts to follow up these positive developments with immediate concrete actions," according to the agency.
Well over 800 people have been killed since the eruption of the latest uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
Since September 2000, Israelis soldiers have killed around 100 Palestinian children, according to Amnesty International, nearly all in situations in which the occupation forces were in no immediate danger – Albawaba.com
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