MIDDLE EAST:Israeli troops crossed into the central Gaza Strip yesterday, killing seven Palestinian fighters, including six from Hamas.
Israeli forces exchanged fire with gunmen in al-Maghazi refugee camp, and some fighters said they fired rocket-propelled grenades at the troops.
Medics said seven Palestinian militants were killed and 13 people, some children, were wounded.
A Hamas cameraman injured by what witnesses said was a tank shell was seen later being shot in the legs from a distance as he lay on the ground.
Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, prime minister of a unity government that president Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah has dismissed, condemned what he called Israel's "military escalation" and "criminal massacre".
Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005 but has pressed ahead with periodic raids aimed at halting rocket fire at the Jewish state, since Hamas's rout of western-backed Abbas's Fatah group last month.
The army spokeswoman said soldiers had carried out a routine raid about a kilometre inside Gaza to search for militants, including those involved in rocket attacks against Israel.
She said troops had fired at gunmen who had edged towards Israeli forces, ignoring calls for them to stop and warning shots. Hospital officials said both legs of a Hamas television cameraman, Imad Ghanem, were amputated after he was shot while standing with a group that included gunmen, though he appeared to be unarmed. Television footage showed gunfire aimed in his direction as Mr Ghanem was lying on the ground.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said journalists were at risk if they entered a combat zone but soldiers did not deliberately target them.
Meanwhile, freed British journalist Alan Johnston met Mahmoud Abbas yesterday amid calls for Britain to engage with the Hamas administration in Gaza.
Johnston, who was freed yesterday after a 114-day hostage ordeal in Gaza, attributed his release to pressure on his kidnappers from Hamas.
But he also made the journey from Jerusalem, where he is recuperating at the British consulate, to Ramallah in the West Bank to thank Mr Abbas for the efforts of the Palestinian people as a whole.
Mr Abbas made repeated calls for Johnston's release during his four-month captivity at the hands of a group calling itself the Army of Islam.
"I came to the West Bank to say thank you to the president for his support and also came to say thank you very much to the Palestinians, especially to the journalists in the West Bank," he said after the meeting.
"I had a radio, I know how much the Palestinians were doing here to work for my release."