Israel vows no let-up in hunt for militants

Gaza - Israel's army said on Tuesday there would be no let-up in its hunt for Islamic militants after it killed 10 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and wounded about 100 in a day of air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian militant groups vowed to avenge the raids. In one attack on a refugee camp, a helicopter gunship chasing suspected militants in a car fired a missile into a crowd of people, killing seven civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also piled pressure on the Palestinians to crack down on militants behind a wave of suicide bombings by renewing a threat to remove Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in a speech to parliament on Monday.

The casualties were inflicted in five air raids over a 12-hour period and followed an ambush by gunmen who killed three Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and the launch of eight makeshift rockets from Gaza into Israel on Sunday.

The violence dealt a new setback to a U.S.-backed peace "road map" intended to end three years of conflict since Palestinians rose up for statehood.

Army spokeswoman Ruth Yaron said a missile hit the crowd of civilians at Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza as helicopter gunships chased a carload of militants who had tried to cross from Gaza into Israel to carry out an attack.

She regretted the deaths of Palestinian civilians but said: "As long as this war of terrorism continues against us and our families, we have no choice but to fight -- with the greatest degree of caution so that as few innocent people as possible are hurt -- and to hit the terrorists."

CALLS FOR REVENGE

The air raids enraged Palestinians. "We will avenge your blood," Hamas supporters shouted during a funeral march after the initial air strikes on Monday, and others chanted: "There is no alternative to bombings."

"Most of those killed are civilians. It's the bloodiest and most dangerous escalation in years," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

The United States renewed its advice to U.S. citizens to leave the Gaza Strip and urged them to avoid travel to Israel or the West Bank. A bomb attack against a diplomatic convoy in Gaza killed three U.S. security guards last Wednesday.

A 12-year-old child was among the seven killed at Nusseirat camp and at least 70 people were wounded, medics said. Two militants and a bystander were killed and at least 26 people were hurt in other air strikes.

Heckled by left-wing and Israeli Arab deputies in parliament, Sharon vowed to go on attacking militants as long as the Palestinian Authority failed to crack down on them.

He offered no new initiatives but reaffirmed policies that include construction of a barrier in the West Bank which Israel says is needed to stop suicide attacks but which Palestinians say grabs land they want for an independent state.

Arab nations urged the United Nations General Assembly on Monday to adopt a resolution declaring the barrier illegal. The sponsors put off a vote until Tuesday at the earliest. -- Reuters

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