Tuesday November 21, 2:13 PM     Reuters

*Israeli forces launch deep Gaza raids*

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops with tanks launched a deep raid into the
Gaza Strip to strike a Palestinian militant stronghold on Tuesday,
killing a gunman during clashes in which a woman also died, witnesses
and hospital officials said.

Hospital officials named the militant killed in Gaza City's Zeitoun
district as Aiman Hassanein, a senior member of the governing Hamas
faction. Witnesses said his brother was detained by troops.

A 70-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead in the Zeitoun clashes,
hospital officials said. It was not immediately clear who had fired at her.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed an operation was under way in
Zeitoun but did not give further details.

Israeli forces also entered the nearby refugee camp of Jabalya as well
as Beit Lahiya, a northern Gaza town frequently used by militants to
launch cross-border rocket salvoes.

Israel has intensified its raids in Gaza since militants captured an
Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid in June.

Israeli forces have killed more than 370 Palestinians in Gaza, about
half of them civilians, since it began the offensive, Palestinian
medical officials and residents say.

Three Israeli soldiers have been killed and a woman in an Israeli border
town died in a Palestinian rocket strike.

ISRAELI VOW

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said on Monday Israel would press
its fight against Palestinian militants firing rockets against the
Jewish state but had no intention of reoccupying Gaza, which it quit
last year.

"I emphasise that our hand is outstretched in peace, but anybody who
rejects it ... should know that ... we will do all we can to sever the
hand which uses terror," Peretz said in a speech carried by Israeli radio.

"We have no intention of making concessions to anybody, we have no
intention of being dragged in to reoccupying Gaza, but we have every
intention of protecting our citizens."

Palestinian gunmen have stepped up rocket fire since Israel killed 19
civilians, including women and children, in a November 8 artillery
shelling of the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

Israel apologised for the shelling, which it blamed on a technical
failure, but said it was in response to the Palestinian rocket fire.

On Monday, an Israeli missile struck a car in Gaza City, killing both
its occupants.

Hamas identified the two men as local commanders of the Islamist
movement. Four people, including two children, were wounded.