Israeli Troops Move Into Gaza

A 16-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed Saturday in the Gaza Strip and another one was wounded as they neared a border fence on the way home from school, witnesses and hospital officials said.

Late Saturday, about 30 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles backed by two Apache helicopters moved into a Gaza town, firing machine guns and tank shells that knocked out the town's power transformer, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said.

There were no reports of injuries in Beit Lahiya, about 3 miles north of Gaza City, which began as residents were emerging from evening prayers, security officials said.

The soldiers surrounded a mosque as well as the local headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and blocked the main road leading north, witnesses said.

Israeli security sources confirmed an operation was under way but gave no details.

Separately, Israel's new Labor Party leader, Amram Mitzna, was sending a representative to Cairo for talks Sunday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher in one of his first acts at the helm of Labor.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat was also due to meet with Maher in Cairo on Sunday. But Israeli and Palestinian officials dismissed speculation that Erekat would meet with Mitzna's envoy, Labor lawmaker Yossi Katz, saying they knew nothing about any planned meeting.

Mitzna has won some praise among Palestinians for saying he would pull settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza Strip and would restart negotiations with the Palestinians if elected prime minister in Jan. 28 elections.

Polls indicate incumbent Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Likud Party will emerge triumphant in the vote.

In violence Saturday, witnesses said a group of schoolchildren were walking about 700 yards near an Israeli army outpost at the Karni Crossing east of Gaza City when soldiers fired at them.

A 16-year-old boy was hit with a live bullet in his abdomen and another in his leg, hospital officials said. A second boy was hit with a bullet in his back and was in moderate condition, they said.

Military sources said soldiers fired warning shots in the air at the teens when they neared a border fence, but didn't think anyone had gotten hurt. They said they started investigating the incident after learning that someone had been killed.

The army, meanwhile, said Saturday it has arrested 55 Palestinians suspected of militant activity over the past two weeks, including five senior leaders. Eight were planning to carry out suicide bombings, the army said.

Among the leaders arrested was Majid Masri, 28, head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the Rafidia neighborhood of the West Bank town of Nablus, who was nabbed Friday. Masri, who also used the name Abu Mojahed, was also a spokesman in the West Bank for the group, which is linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

The United Nations, meanwhile, formally demanded Israel thoroughly investigate the death of a British U.N. official by Israeli soldiers and punish those responsible.

Iain Hook, a project manager in UNRWA, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, was fatally shot Nov. 22 during a firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the battle-scarred Jenin refugee camp.

Israel has admitted its soldiers killed Hook, but said they fired on the walled U.N. compound because Palestinian gunmen were firing at them from inside, and because they thought Hook was carrying a gun.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter to Sharon on Wednesday conveying his "outrage" at the death, and saying he expected Israel "to carry out a rigorous investigation of the incident, share its results with the United Nations, and hold accountable those responsible," said a U.N. spokesman in New York, Farhan Haq.

In Gaza's Bourrej refugee camp, meantime, Jamal al Dura showed off his newborn son, Mohammed, named after al Dura's 12-year-old boy who was killed on the second day of the Palestinian uprising. The death, filmed by television, galvanized Palestinians and turned the slain Mohammed into a symbol of the conflict.

Al Dura said he felt blessed by his newborn son, but said he would sacrifice more of his children to fight Israel.

"There will be no security for them as long as we have occupation," al Dura told Associated Press Television News. "We're ready to give more of our children."