Israeli Soldiers Kill Hamas Gunmen

Israeli troops today killed two Palestinian Hamas gunmen in Gaza, wounding three others in an upsurge of violence days before the US president, George Bush, visits Israel.

Hamas said the gunmen died in a clash during an Israeli incursion near the northern town of Beit Hanoun.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed there had been an operation near the town, and said the men were shot in separate incidents as they approached the soldiers.

The killings came after Palestinian militants yesterday fired a Katyusha rocket at the northern part of the Israeli town of Ashkelon - the longest reach yet by a Palestinian rocket.

Israel hit back with air strikes and ground operations in which nine people, including three civilians, were killed. The Israeli operations continued today when infantry went into Gaza near the Israeli border.

The rocket attack on Ashkelon led to renewed calls for a large-scale ground operation in Gaza. Ron Mehatzri, the mayor of the 120,000-strong town, urged an Israeli invasion of Gaza to stop the attacks.

"It's just madness, just madness," he told Channel 10 TV. "Israel should have acted in Gaza a long time ago."

Most of the rocket fire at Israel has been carried out by Islamic Jihad, a small militant group allied with Hamas and acting with its consent.

The latest violence highlighted the difficulties confronting a belated US peace effort in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Bush is expected to arrive in Jerusalem on January 9 for his first visit as US president.

He is coming to the region as the Israeli government resumes peace talks with the moderate Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas, the leader of the Fatah faction, has ruled the West Bank since Hamas militants seized power in Gaza last June.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Abbas, yesterday condemned Israel's operations in Gaza.

"We consider what's going on in Gaza ... as a bloody Israeli message in which Israel shirks itself of any commitment before the arrival of President Bush to the region," he said.

Yesterday, Bush said he would not let a future Palestinian state become a base for attacks on Israel. "I won't lend a hand to the establishment of a terror state on the borders of Israel," he told the Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily.