Israel Launches Tank and Air Strikes on Gaza

Israeli troops today killed four Palestinian fighters as Israel launched its first major attacks in Gaza since Hamas took over the territory last week.

Aircraft also struck launch sites in northern Gaza after militants fired at least one makeshift rocket at the town of Sderot, a frequent target of missile fire.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the launchers were loaded with rockets when they were hit. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israeli officials said two Hamas fighters and two other militants were killed in a clash near the Kissufim border crossing in Gaza after Israeli tanks and troops had pushed into the coastal enclave in a search for wanted Palestinian gunmen.

In the larger Palestinian territory of the West Bank, where Fatah is dominant, two more Palestinian gunmen were killed after an hour-long shootout with Israeli undercover police forces in Kafr Dan, a village near Jenin.

As Israeli forces clashed with Hamas Islamists, the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, eased restrictions on some of the hundreds of people trapped at the border waiting to enter Israel since Hamas seized control of Gaza.

Those in need of urgent medical treatment would be allowed into Israel. Israelis also allowed all foreign nationals, including 140 Russians, to cross over to Israel.

Separately, Israel's supreme court was hearing a petition by a human rights group, demanding that Israeli authorities offer immediate medical treatment to 26 critically ill Palestinians hospitalized in Gaza.

The latest violence came amid fresh moves to prop up the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, following the rupture between his Fatah group and Hamas Islamists.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is to meet Mr Abbas next week. The two are expected to discuss ways to renew the peace process, which has been in the doldrums ever since Hamas won a parliamentary election in January last year.

Mr Olmert told the US president, George Bush, at the White House yesterday that he wanted to make "every possible effort to cooperate" with Mr Abbas.