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MIDDLE EAST: Israeli soldiers killed seven Palestinians yesterday in the Occupied Territories, including four in a raid in southern Gaza, while inside Israel, security forces arrested three Israeli Arab citizens on suspicion of planning attacks, in the latest in a rising number of such cases.

Troops backed by tanks and helicopters thrust into the Rafah refugee camp in the early hours of yesterday morning, in what the army said was a search for tunnels used to smuggle weapons from the Egyptian side of the border into Gaza. A gunman was killed during the firefight that erupted as the Israeli forces moved into the camp, which has proven a stubborn flashpoint of resistance since the start of the intifada.