Six Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli fire

Five Palestinians were killed and three wounded by tank fire in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, where the Israeli army has been conducting operations aimed at militants since Saturday night, they said.

According to witnesses, two Shejaiya residents, Rami al-Gharabli, 27, and Yasser al-Gharabli, 25, were trying to get out of their house encircled by Israeli tanks when they were struck.

Two other men, Raed Isbita, 23, and Mohand Jindiya, 23, attempted to help the pair when they were struck in turn.

Another man, Salman Abu Qunbus, 25, was also killed in a separate incident in Shejaiya.

According to witnesses, all five were civilians.

An army spokesman said the tanks fired after "armed men approached troops operating in Shejaiya."

On Tuesday, three Palestinians, including a militant from the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, were killed and three others injured in Shejaiya.

Fifteen Palestinians have been killed in the neighborhood since the start of the Israeli operation there on Saturday.

The Israeli army said that it had discovered a large tunnel, 13 meters (yards) deep and 150 meters long, dug from a house in Shejaiya to near the Karni crossing with Israel and released photographs of the tunnel.

"Our forces discovered a very large tunnel of 150 meters in length on August 28, which was dug beginning from a house in Shejaiya in Gaza until the Karni terminal," used for transfer of goods between the strip and Israel.

"The tunnel was meant to be used for an attack on the terminal," he said.

"Our intelligence services alerted us to its existence, along with other planned strikes, and that is why the Karni terminal has often been closed during the past few months," he said.

Meanwhile in northern Gaza, a 24-year-old mentally handicapped man was killed overnight by Israeli fire after he approached the border with Israel, hospital officials said.