Israel keeps up Gaza offensive

At least six of those who died in the attack on the Jabalya refugee camp were members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of ruling Palestinian movement Hamas.

Security officials said Israeli ground forces also raided the Jabalya area.

Since Thursday, 20 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip aimed at rescuing a captured soldier and at putting an end to rocket fire from the territory on southern Israel.

Israeli public radio said Defence Minister Amir Peretz had ordered the army to "step up the offensive" after three Israelis were slightly wounded Friday night when a homemade Palestinian rocket hit the town of Sderot, near the Gaza border.

Since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, more than 1,000 rockets have hit the Negev Desert town of 24,000 people. Five people, including three children, have been killed and dozens hurt.

An army spokeswoman said the military had been responding overnight to the firing of anti-tank rockets from the Jabalya area and had hit "a certain number of terrorists."

She added that a house "that hid a tunnel used for arms smuggling" had been destroyed in an air raid in the southern town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

The Palestinian government headed by the radical Islamist movement Hamas issued a statement Saturday denouncing the "odious crimes perpetrated against civilians," which it said showed the intention of Israel to ratchet up its offensive.