At least 22 dead in Gaza attacks

Twenty-eight Palestinians have now died in the days after the invasion.
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Palestinian militants armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades battled Israeli helicopters and tanks Thursday in the bloodiest day since Israel invaded Gaza over a soldier's capture. At least 21 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier died.
Israeli troops retook three empty Jewish settlements nearly a year after abandoning them, seeking to carve out a temporary buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip to prevent militants from firing more rockets into Israel.
After touring Gaza main hospital, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the Islamic militant group Hamas called for international intervention to stop the Israeli offensive, which he called a "crime against humanity."
Haniyeh said the Israeli push was "a desperate effort to undermine the Palestinian government under the pretext of a search for the missing soldier."
Throughout the day, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at militants while Israeli tanks took up positions among tightly packed Palestinian homes. Apache helicopters hovered overhead, firing flares and machine guns to support ground troops fighting masked Palestinian gunmen.
Interior Minister Said Siyyam issued the Hamas-led Palestinian administration's first call to arms since Israel invaded last week, urging Gaza security forces to fulfill their "religious and moral duty to stand up to this aggression and cowardly Zionist invasion."
Siyyam doesn't carry much weight with Palestinian security forces, however, because most are loyal to the rival Fatah party led by the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Previous attacks
Earlier this week, Hamas militants fired two rockets into the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. No one was hurt, but the rockets were the first to reach a major Israeli population center, indicating militants have obtained longer-range weapons.
In response, Israeli troops moved into the densely populated towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, where militants often launch rockets. The army said all attacks were aimed at militants.
"We are doing the utmost effort ... to avoid civilian casualties," said another military official, Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan. "Really, there is no other way of operating against terrorists who are operating inside their own civilian populations."
Israel began its ground invasion June 28, three days after militants linked to Hamas captured Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, in a daring cross-border raid. Israeli officials said they would do what was necessary to get the soldier back.
Thursday's fighting
On Thursday, the fighting swelled -- and so did the death toll.
Israeli helicopter gunships circled over the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, providing support fire as Israeli tanks maneuvered among tightly packed Palestinian homes.
Infantrymen took over one family's house, locking the inhabitants on the bottom floor of the home and posting snipers on the upper floors. Outside, armored bulldozers pushed up sand embankments to shelter tanks.
Palestinian militants, many wearing black masks, crept down narrow alleys to get close to Israeli forces and open fire with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.
Several militants were seen carrying bombs with electric cables to be buried in alleys or near roads and set off as tanks passed by.
During breaks in the fighting, some Palestinian women and children fled their homes and left the area on foot.
Ali Ajrami, a tailor living in a farm house in Beit Lahiya, was trapped with his nine children in one room after Israeli tanks parked in a garden behind his house and special forces took position on the rooftops of neighboring buildings. Gunfire could be heard nearby.
"We are trapped. I don't know what to do," he said. Ajrami said he had stocked up food and diesel fuel before the offensive, but was struggling to keep his children indoors.
Twenty-one Palestinians were reported killed during the day, including nine who died from airstrikes in the Beit Lahiya area.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry, Khaled Radi, said he didn't know how many civilians were among the dead. He said 67 people had been wounded, including 20 children.
Hamas said six of the dead were its members.
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