which reportedly 10 Palestinians died, including two U.N. workers, the British Broadcasting Corporation said.
Palestinian residents said their life "changed into rubble" when Israeli forces backed by helicopters entered the impoverished El-Bureij neighbourhood in the Gaza Strip, early Friday, December 6, at the beginning of a Muslim holiday.
However Israeli army Spokeswoman Sharon Feingold said the Israel considered "the operation a success," as the troops demolished the home of a militant leader of the Fatah movement, identified as Aiman Shasniyeh.
Israeli officials said the man coordinated a series of deadly tank attacks against the Israeli Defence Forces with "notorious Fatah bomb-maker", Mustafa Sabah, who was killed in a pin-point helicopter strike in Gaza City on Wednesday, December 4.
However Shasniyeh was not in the house at the time, and Feingold admitted that the troops "found themselves in the middle" of an intense, close-quarters gun battle with Palestinian fighters.
During the battle an Israeli helicopter reportedly fired a rocket into a crowd of armed men, before the troops moved out.
The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) News Agency quoted Palestinian sources as saying that four members of the same family were killed and a fifth was wounded by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tank fire.
"It appears that two wanted men, who like Sabah were official Palestinian security officers, were killed during the raid. According to IDF officials, at least four others among the dead are known Hamas terrorists," the well informed ICEJ said.
A senior aid to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Nabil Abu Rudenina, spoke of a "new massacre and crime against our unarmed people."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has described these kind of actions as "state terrorism" and part of an ongoing Palestinian Public Relations efforts to equate Palestinian terrorism and Israeli counter-terror methods.
The latest violence came amid fresh reports at a time when a growing number of Western and Arab Christians are leaving Jesus birthplace Bethlehem and other Palestinian area’s.
