BEIT HANUN (Gaza Strip), Feb 23: Israeli forces occupied a northern Gaza Strip town and started building camps in commandeered houses on Sunday, killing six Palestinians.

Five other Palestinians and an Israeli soldier died as a result of violence elsewhere in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Israel has reoccupied the West Bank since June last year but has so far confined itself to large raids into the Gaza Strip.

The re-occupation started shortly after midnight and was still underway more than 16 hours later, with forces sandbagging two sequestered houses and a school as bases and fighting intensive gun battles with armed Palestinians.

The Israel reoccupation of Beit Hanun began when a column of tanks and armoured vehicles supported by helicopters rumbled into the town.

Six houses belonging to slain or wanted militants from the Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were dynamited by the army, which also commandeered three civilian buildings and started turning them into military bases.

As a further sign the army, which has reoccupied the West Bank for eight months, was planning a longer stay in the Gaza town, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said his troops would remain in place until the missile threat was eliminated. —AFP