Israel dealt a double blow to the Hamas group today, arresting a West Bank leader held responsible for a twin suicide bus bombing that killed 16 and killing a militant in a Gaza airstrike.
Witnesses said two other militants were killed by a tank shell as armoured Israeli forces thrust deep into the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya in an offensive against militants to help pave the way for an Israeli withdrawal from the territory next year.
A Gaza Palestinian girl of 11 died of injuries a day after being hit by Israeli army gunfire while sitting in her classroom at a UN school in Khan Younis refugee camp, local medics said.
An Israeli military source said soldiers had fired towards Palestinian gunmen believed to be near the school. The incident, under investigation, followed anti-tank missile fire at a nearby Jewish settlement and an army post, he said.
Imad al-Kawasme, Hamas's commander in the West Bank city of Hebron, was arrested by Israeli troops on suspicion of orchestrating August 31st suicide attacks on two buses in the Israeli city of Beersheva, witnesses and Israel Army Radio said.
Kawasme is from a large Hebron clan Israel says has been heavily involved in Islamist militant attacks. A number of Kawasme men have been killed or arrested by Israeli forces over the course of a four-year-old Palestinian revolt.
Neighbours said Israeli troops who seized Imad al-Kawasme also demolished his family house.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks in Beersheva.
In northern Gaza, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile near a house during a bout of fighting with militants, killing a 22-year-old Hamas gunman, medics said. Three other militants were wounded by the missile, two of them critically.
The air strike was part of Israel's biggest offensive in Gaza since the Palestinian uprising began. The latest military campaign was launched after two Israeli toddlers were killed in a rocket strike on the town of Sderot on September 29th.
Ninety-six Palestinians have been killed in two weeks of fighting. At least 54 of them were militants and most of the rest were believed to be civilians, Palestinian medics say. Israel says the vast majority of Palestinian dead were gunmen.
However, it is known that among the dead are a 13 year-old schoolgirl, shot 20 times, and a four year-old boy.
Three Israelis and a Thai worker have also been killed.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is dismayed by the "high toll of deaths and injuries among the (Palestinian) civilian population", his spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday.
"He grieves for the many children who have been killed or wounded ... He is also very disturbed by the destruction to civilian property, infrastructure and farmland."
Israeli forces say they are targeting only militants but that their foe commonly uses populated areas as cover.