Boy, three others killed in Israeli raid in Gaza

A 10-year-old boy was among four Palestinians killed on Friday when Israeli tanks and helicopters opened fire inside the Gaza Strip after Israel vowed to retaliate for a border attack.


A further 25 Palestinians were wounded, including three children who suffered severe wounds, medics said.
Riyad Owayssi, 10, stood with dozens of children near the tanks, outside the Bureij refugee camp, when he was fatally hit, medics said, while three other civilians were killed when a house was hit by tank and helicopter fire.
Minutes earlier, militants had targeted the Israeli force from outside the house, but managed to get away before the building came under fire, witnesses said.
Ten tanks and two armoured bulldozers, backed by two assault helicopters, entered one kilometre (0.6 mile) into Gaza early Friday morning, drawing heavy fire from militants, medics said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed forces were operating in the Hamas-run territory and had come under gun and mortar fire.
The previous night, two Hamas militants were killed in an air strike in southern Gaza.
Israel has vowed to "settle the score" with the Islamist group for a border attack that killed two Israeli civilians on Wednesday, following a month of relative calm in and around Gaza.
Hamas has not claimed responsibility for that attack, which three other groups said they carried out. But Israel blames Hamas because it controls Gaza, where it ousted forces loyal to moderate president Mahmud Abbas in June.
"I promise you that the response against Hamas will be such that Hamas will be no longer able to act against Israeli citizens," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday.
Hamas said such statements clearly showed Israel was preparing the ground for a new military operation against Gaza.
Gaza militants on Wednesday breached the border with Israel under cover of mortar fire, killing two Israeli contractors at the Nahal Oz oil terminal that provides the Palestinian territory with its fuel supplies.
On the Palestinian side, four civilians and three fighters were killed during and immediately after the attack.
Israel said it temporarily shut down the terminal, but insisted it would continue providing minimal fuel supplies to the Palestinian territory that has been under a crippling blockade for months.
Hamas this week threatened to storm Gaza's borders in a repeat of a breach in January that sent hundreds of thousands of weary Palestinians streaming into Egypt to stock up on goods they can't get at home because of a tight Israeli-imposed embargo.
Egypt has since brought in extra troops to reinforce its border with Gaza.
And authorities at the Suez Canal were limiting the number of trucks being allowed to proceed onwards to the border in order to prevent shops there from overstocking in anticipation of another break-out.
While violence threatened to erupt again in Gaza, Olmert reiterated that talks with Abbas could lead to a historic peace deal this year, but that he did not believe it could be implemented at this stage.
"The first step of offering hope to us and the Palestinians can and should be done, and we will do every effort to succeed this year," he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that a Moscow peace conference would give a "second wind" to peace efforts in the region