- GAZA (Reuters) -- Palestinian
militants blew up an armored vehicle killing five Israeli soldiers in southern
Gaza Wednesday, witnesses said, in the second lethal ambush against the
Middle East's strongest army in as many days.
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- The al-Arabiya satellite television station reported
six Israeli soldiers were killed in Rafah, a militant hotbed. The Israeli
army confirmed one of its armored vehicles was hit by an explosion and
reported casualties, without elaborating.
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- The ambush occurred as Israeli forces were blasting their
way into buildings in Gaza City in the north of the territory in a search
for the body parts of six comrades blown up when their armored vehicle
ran over a mine laid by militants Tuesday.
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- The new spiral of deadly violence in Gaza since Tuesday
intensified Israeli debate over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's vow to pursue
a landmark plan to remove settlers from the territory despite its rejection
by rightists in his own party.
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- Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the Rafah ambush,
another severe blow to the Israeli military in occupied territory just
24 hours after it suffered its deadliest ambush in 18 months.
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- An Islamic Jihad statement said it had destroyed the
vehicle with a rocket-propelled grenade and that its strike avenged Israel's
killings of some of its leaders as well as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder
of the biggest militant faction Hamas.
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- Local news reports said variously that the blast had
targeted an armored bulldozer or a troop carrier in the area, the scene
of many battles between Israeli troops and militants waging a 3 1/2-year-old
uprising.
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- The Israeli army routinely withholds information on such
attacks for hours because of censorship rules.
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- ISRAELIS REJECT DEALS TO RECOVER BODY PARTS
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- Earlier Wednesday, Palestinian security sources said
militants had agreed to hand over the remains of the six soldiers killed
Tuesday if Israeli forces withdrew first.
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- But Israel said troops would stay put until the bodies
were recovered for a proper burial according to Jewish tradition. Israel
has long gone to great lengths, including negotiations, to retrieve remains
of citizens killed in violence with Arabs.
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- Israeli armored forces had stormed into Gaza City on
Tuesday to raze a few makeshift rocket and mortar plants.
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- But the raid went awry when a troop carrier ran over
a land-mine laid by militants. The six soldiers on board were killed, and
their remains hurled in all directions.
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- Troops backed by tanks came under small arms and rocket
fire from militants as they combed Gaza City's teeming Zeitoun neighborhood
house-by-house for the bodies.
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- Israeli helicopters a fired missiles to support the ground
forces. One missile crashed near a mosque, killing three Hamas fighters
and wounding 13 civilians. The army said its targets had been planting
explosives to kill roving soldiers.
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- Two other Palestinians were shot dead during street clashes,
one of them a civilian, local medics said.
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- Militants said they had taken the soldiers' remains away
from Zeitoun to use as bargaining chips for demands that Israel stop raiding
Gaza and free jailed Palestinians.
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- Palestinian officials said Wednesday that they, Egyptian
mediators and the International Committee of the Red Cross had persuaded
them to relinquish the bodies on condition that Israeli forces pulled out
of Gaza City.
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- Sharon's government repeated that it would do no deals.
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- Palestinian gunmen had brandished dismembered remains
of the soldiers after Tuesday's ambush, which to militants restored prestige
lost after almost two months without a reply to Israel's stunning assassination
of Yassin in a missile strike.
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- Moderates in Sharon's Likud party and opposition doves
had said Tuesday's ambush boosted their case for a withdrawal from Gaza,
where armored forces are bogged down guarding 7,500 settlers living alongside
1.2 million Palestinians.
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- Opinion polls indicate that most Israelis see Gaza as
a liability that should be abandoned, but Sharon wants to rout the militants
before a pullout to stop them claiming a victory.
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- Right-wingers counter that retreating will only embolden
Islamist militants sworn to destroying Israel itself.
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- - Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Gwen
Ackerman
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- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5121547
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