Israel Raids Gaza Town, Kills Five

Israeli forces backed by tanks and bulldozers raided a Gaza Strip town early Wednesday, killing at least five Palestinians, among them three militants, in fighting with gunmen, Palestinian officials said.

In response, hundreds of Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails and stones at the Israeli troops.

The invasion came hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to continue targeting militant Palestinian leaders, following the weekend assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. On Tuesday, troops killed four Palestinians in fighting in northern Gaza.

Early Wednesday, Israeli troops and tanks moved into Beit Lahiya, near the scene of fighting the previous day and surrounded a housing project.

Bulldozers began demolishing a partially built building, witnesses said, while gunmen exchanged fire with troops. Three militants and two unidentified Palestinians were killed, all between the ages of 17 and 21. Thirteen others were wounded.

Israeli Apache helicopters periodically fired on the area, which is often used by militants as a launching ground for home-made missiles they lob at nearby Jewish settlements.

Since Rantisi's assassination on Saturday, militants have launched barrages of rockets and mortar shells at the Israeli communities, wounding at least one person and damaging several structures. The barrage of homemade rockets — 15 over two days — was one of the largest in months.

Fighting in the Gaza Strip has spiraled since Sharon announced plans in February to evacuate 21 Jewish settlements in the coastal area.

Ahead of the pullout, each side is trying to show a victory. The army has increased its targeted killings of militants, while Palestinians have tried to carry out more attacks and on a larger scale.

On Tuesday, Sharon vowed to keep up his assault on militant leaders. A March 14 suicide bombing in the Israeli port city of Ashdod — where Sharon spoke Tuesday — set off a heightened campaign against Hamas leaders.

Israel killed Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin on March 24. His successor, Rantisi, was killed Saturday.

"We will fight terror and we will not let up on them — in that way we got rid of the first murderer, and in that way a few days ago we got rid of the second murderer, and that is not the end," Sharon said.

The violence came as Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz visited an Israeli army position in Gaza, promoting Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan, which includes a pullout from the territory.

Sharon's Likud Party is to vote in a referendum on the plan on May 2.

Although Sharon and the Likud have led Israel's efforts to build settlements in captured territory over the past three years, the disengagement plan calls for dismantling settlements in Gaza and the West Bank for the first time. Sharon says the plan will boost Israel's security by reducing friction with Palestinians, and Likud leaders are lining up behind it. The party's rank and file is expected to approve the plan.

Talking to troops at a post on the Gaza-Egypt border, scene of almost daily clashes as the military searches for arms smuggling tunnels, Mofaz said the pullout would reduce friction with the Palestinians.

Even after the withdrawal, he said, the Israeli military "can act freely, while remaining in the area around the Gaza Strip."

Israel has said it would reserve the right to attack militants in Gaza even after its withdrawal.

The clashes in northern Gaza appeared to foreshadow the type of sequence Mofaz meant — Israeli forces entering Gaza to stop Palestinian rocket fire.