Three young girls were wounded, one of them seriously, when Israeli tanks shelled part the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Khan Yunis today, Palestinian security sources said.
They said the badly wounded girl was hit in the head by shrapnel.
Palestinian security sources claimed that tanks had randomly opened fire at the refugee camp which lies in the southern Gaza Strip near the Neve Dekalim Jewish settlement. But Palestinian residents acknowledged that small home-made rockets had been fired at an Israeli armored vehicle in the area.
Further south, in the impoverished town of Rafah, a 12-year-old boy was moderately injured when troops opened fire in the local refugee camp which lies hard on the border with Egypt, Palestinian medical sources said.
Three houses in the camp were allegedly destroyed by Israeli troops
A spokesman for the Israeli army denied there had been any house demolitions, but Israeli military sources said troops detonated explosive charges "in an open field" to destroy weapons smuggling tunnels allegedly running under the border area.
As troops were conducting these "engineering activities," Palestinians fired anti-tank missiles, and threw grenades and explosive devices, the military sources said, provoking the troops to return fire. They were unaware of any Palestinians wounded in the incident.
AFP