MIDDLE EAST Israel strikes Palestinian refugee camp

Israel said the attack is aimed at disrupting weapons-smuggling operations.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli helicopters pounded this refugee camp with missiles and machine-gun fire, killing at least 12 Palestinians, eight of them armed, as troops searched houses in the largest Israeli offensive in Gaza in years.
The death toll was expected to rise, with doctors saying they knew of two more bodies they were unable to collect because of heavy shooting.
Trapped residents said they huddled in the innermost rooms of their homes as bullets rained outside today. Others tried to flee to safer ground. At least 34 Palestinians were wounded, including eight who were in critical condition.
Israel says it is targeting the Rafah refugee camp, on the border with Egypt, to destroy arms-smuggling tunnels and hunt Palestinian militants. Security officials said earlier this week the army also plans to widen an Israeli patrol road between the camp and Egypt, which would entail demolishing rows of nearby houses.
Last week, Israel destroyed about 100 houses near the patrol road, making more than 1,000 Palestinians homeless and drawing worldwide condemnation, including rare criticism from the United States.
'Operation Rainbow'
The first phase of Israel's offensive, "Operation Rainbow," struck the Tel Sultan neighborhood on the outskirts of the Rafah camp today, about 1 1/2 miles from the patrol road.
Bulldozers began tearing up a road to separate the neighborhood from the rest of the camp, home to about 90,000 Palestinians, witnesses said. Soldiers backed by about 70 armored vehicles went house-to-house in the neighborhood.
Resident Mohammed Shaer, 39, said soldiers locked him, his wife and five children in one room as they searched the building. He said he heard heavy firing outside, and that no one dared to approach the windows.
Twelve Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire -- 10 in two separate missile strikes, and two by machine-gun fire. A 13th man was killed while handling explosives.
At least eight of the dead were armed, hospital officials said.
At the beginning of the raid, a missile fired from a helicopter hit a group of gunmen outside a mosque in Tel Sultan, killing three. Two more missiles were fired, killing three more people who rushed to help. The mosque caught fire.
In another airstrike, four Palestinians were killed, all civilians, according to hospital officials. Doctors initially said two of the dead were militants but said they erred in the identification because two of the bodies were badly mangled.
The military said both strikes were aimed at gunmen.
Troops demolished three houses in Tel Sultan, witnesses and the army said. In all, more than 11,000 Palestinians in Rafah have been made homeless by Israeli demolitions since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000.
Treating casualties
With the dead streaming to Abu Yousef Al Najar Hospital in Rafah, the morgue filled up, and bodies were placed in a storefront next to a falafel stand. In the makeshift morgue, bodies were wrapped in white cloth and laid out on the ground.
Palestinian ambulance drivers reported coming under fire, and Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said several ambulances were pinned down in the area of fighting, unable to evacuate wounded to the hospital.
Dr. Wael Burdeini said troops besieged a U.N. clinic in Tel Sultan, with a tank and an army bulldozer parked outside, and heavy shooting in the area. Dr. Burdeini said the clinic's three ambulances were unable to move.
The doctor said he knew of two bodies the ambulances were unable to retrieve, include one lying near a building.
The Israeli military denied the claims. Maj. Sharon Feingold said the military had sent 40 oxygen tanks to Rafah hospital and was keeping the access road open.
Hassanain said the Rafah hospital was not equipped to treat seriously wounded patients. However, troops sealed off Rafah on Monday, and the road to a larger hospital in neighboring Khan Younis -- and the rest of the Gaza Strip -- was closed. The army said it was permitting some ambulances to drive to Khan Younis.
Over the weekend, thousands of Rafah residents had fled the camp in expectation of a major Israeli offensive. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency prepared emergency shelter in schools and pitched a tent camp.
Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli army chief, said today that the aim of the operation is to destroy arms-smuggling tunnels. He said homes would be demolished only if gunmen used them as firing positions or to cover up tunnels.
Yaalon suggested the offensive could continue for several days.
He said Israel has no choice but to act, because Palestinian militants have succeeded in smuggling rocket-propelled grenade launchers into Rafah, with the help of Iran and the Iranian-funded Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon.
"They find that the Egyptian border is easy to get through, and they are bringing in these weapons," Yaalon said.