Israeli woman killed in attack on Gaza settlement

A Palestinian mortar bomb slammed into a house in a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip today, killing a woman and fuelling settler…

A Palestinian mortar bomb slammed into a house in a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip today, killing a woman and fuelling settler anger over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull Israelis out of the area.

The militant Hamas group said it carried out the attack against Neve Dekalim in the southern Gaza Strip, a day after three Palestinian gunmen killed three soldiers on the fringes of another settlement to the south.

Violence has surged in Gaza ahead of the planned withdrawal of settlers and soldiers by the end of 2005. Palestinian militants are eager to say they drove out the Israelis and the army is keen to strike them hard before it leaves.

In the latest attack, several hours before the start of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, a mortar bomb struck a home in Neve Dekalim, wounding a woman in the head and slightly injuring person.

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The army said the woman later died in hospital. Israel Radio said she was a visitor from Jerusalem.

Militants fire mortar bombs and crude rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza almost daily, but it has been two years since an Israeli has been killed in such an attack in the Strip.

After the incident, Israeli troops in Neve Dekalim fired towards the nearby Khan Younis refugee camp. Medics said two Palestinians, one of them a four-year-old boy, were wounded.

A settler spokesman said Sharon's offer to pay cash advances to Gaza settlers willing to accept state compensation and leave their homes only emboldened Palestinian militants.

"We wouldn't be surprised if the words 'From Sharon with love' aren't written on future mortar bombs," the spokesman said.

The settler umbrella group, YESHA, issued a statement urging Sharon to take time during the Yom Kippur fast day to "search his soul and abandon the disengagement plan that represents a security disaster".