Post by Salem6 on Sept 7, 2007 9:22:33 GMT
At least 10 Palestinian militants have been killed in clashes with Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip.
The clashes near Khan Younis erupted on Thursday morning
Israeli aircraft fired on two cars as they approached an army border post, killing six members of Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Earlier, four militants were killed in clashes with the Israeli army after its troops entered Gaza near Khan Younis.
The incursion came a day after Israel's security cabinet met to discuss how to put an end to rocket attacks from Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the army to draw up plans to counter the strikes, but stopped short of calls by some ministers for an immediate expansion of Israeli military operations in the territory.
The cabinet also discussed a plan to cut supplies of water and electricity to Gaza.
There is a growing pressure on the Israeli government to do more to put an end to the attacks, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Gaza says.
Palestinian groups say they fire rockets at Israel in response to Israeli military action in Gaza and the West Bank.
Border ambush
Clashes initially began in Gaza on Thursday morning, after Israeli tanks and bulldozers crossed the Israel-Gaza border and moved towards the town of Khan Younis.
Palestinian militants belonging to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups fired at the troops. Three were killed and six others injured in return fire by Israeli tank shells.
Another militant was killed later in the same area by an Israeli tank shell.
Israel said its forces had carried out "routine activity" in an area where militants have been firing rockets and digging tunnels by the border fence.
Later, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said six of their members had been killed when they crashed a pick-up truck and a car through the border fence in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had fired missiles at two vehicles as they approached an army post, but denied the militants had breached the border.
Earlier, in the West Bank, members of Islamic Jihad shot dead a Palestinian policeman after he stopped their car for a routine check, in the town of Jenin, the Associated Press news agency reported.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6982026.stm