Ten Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded Monday during an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, officials and doctors said, most when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile that exploded in a crowd.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the missile explosion. Israeli military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation in Khan Younis was limited and not a large-scale invasion.

The Israeli missile strike came at the end of the four-hour incursion. It wasn't clear what the target was. Residents said people came out into the streets around 4:30 a.m. when they heard the tanks pulling out, but two Israeli helicopters remained overhead, and one of them fired the missile.

Doctors said 10 people were killed in the raid, including eight in the missile attack. They said at least 65 people were wounded by the missile blast. Abed Ouda, 29, said he was parking his car when the missile struck. "I heard a huge explosion," he said, "and people were wounded and bleeding on the ground in front of my car."

Dr. Mohammed Abu Dalal of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis appealed for more doctors and supplies to help treat the large numbers of casualties.

After midnight, about 40 Israeli tanks, backed by helicopters, had entered the Khan Younis and shelled houses on the main street, witnesses said. Israeli armored columns have frequently moved into Palestinian-controlled areas in recent weeks, destroying workshops where Israel says weapons are made and arresting terror suspects.

On Sunday, two Palestinian men were shot dead in the northern West Bank, one in a gunbattle with Israeli troops, the other allegedly shot by a Jewish settler in an olive grove.

Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of killing Hani Yousef, 22, as he was harvesting olives near his village, Aqraba. Another Palestinian farmer was shot and wounded by the settlers, who came from the nearby settlement of Itamar, according to the Palestinian mayor, Ghaled Mayadme. Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the farmer's death was being investigated, but no arrests had been made. The farmer had been shot in the back, he said.

In the Jenin Refugee Camp, also in the northern West Bank, Israeli troops killed Samer Jalamneh, a 22-year-old member of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, after he opened fire at them with an assault rifle, witnesses and the military said.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, speaking from the remnants of his Ramallah compound, accused the Israeli army of covering up settlers' actions. "The army is protecting their daily crimes against Palestinian residents in their homes and against Palestinian farmers," Arafat said after a meeting with Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of Red Cross, who is touring Israel and Palestinian areas this week.

source : yahoo News