Eight Palestinians, including a two-year-old boy, were killed today when Israeli forces thrust into a Gaza neighbourhood to detain suspected militants shortly after the release of a Middle East peace "road map".
The tank and infantry raid sent a strong signal to a "Quartet" of US-led mediators and to the new Palestinian government that Israel would press ahead with such operations despite the new proposal to end 31 months of bloodshed.
Residents of the Shijaia neighbourhood outside Gaza City said the Israeli tank and infantry force backed by helicopter gunships laid siege to the family home of a militant from the Islamic group Hamas. Soldiers called on those inside to leave.
Hamas and an armed offshoot of the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat and new reformist Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas claimed responsibility for a Tel Aviv suicide bombing that killed three people yesterday.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the night-time Gaza incursion as an "Israeli crime" aimed at wrecking the peace plan presented on Wednesday by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia and rejected by Palestinian militants.
Israeli officials say they will not change the way they confront an uprising for statehood until the Palestinians show they are cracking down on militants as required by the road map.
Witnesses in Shijaia reported heavy fighting between soldiers and gunmen and said tanks fired shells at the besieged home of suspected Hamas militant Youssef Abu Heen. They said helicopters launched missiles at positions apparently held by gunmen.
"Our activity is focused on one house where the wanted Hamas men we came to arrest have holed up," an Israeli military source said. "The other tenants have left and as far as we know the only people remaining are the Hamas members."
In a statement, Hamas said: "We are using a legitimate weapon to confront the Zionist aggression -- the weapon of resistance -- and it will not be dropped as long as occupation exists."
Mr Ahmed Ayyad, a blacksmith, said his two-year-old son, Amir, was killed by a bullet to the head as the toddler stood near a window facing Israeli troops.
Seven other Palestinians, among them at least three civilians, were killed during the gun battle and more than 65 were wounded, witnesses and hospital officials said.
The Israeli military source said eight soldiers were wounded. Earlier in the West Bank, two Palestinian gunmen were killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers near the village of Yatta, residents said.