02 October 2004	Saturday	16 Shaban 1425

GAZA, Oct 1: The Israeli army killed nine Palestinians in Gaza on Friday as according to some reports 100 tanks and soldiers rumbled deep into the coastal strip, expanding a ground offensive intended to stop militants from firing rockets into Israeli towns.

Troops readied to take control of a six-kilometre deep buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip, hours after 28 Palestinians and three Israelis, including two children were killed on Thursday, to keep militants and rockets away from targets in southern Israel, just across the border, an official said on Friday.

Thirty-five tanks were seen entering Beit Hanun, while another 30 were seen pushing into Beit Lahiya and 30 more spotted moving into the eastern sector of Jabaliya, all in northern Gaza, local residents said.

Israel's security cabinet Thursday approved a broadening of the operation, which it said was open-ended but would not be "a permanent occupation". Members of the security cabinet have been allegedly pressing for the army to carry out a second 'Defensive Shield-style' operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli radio said.

The operation, codenamed 'Days of Reckoning', followed the killing of two Israeli pre-schoolers by a rocket in the border town of Sderot on Wednesday. Eluding troops, militants fired off another rocket on Friday but caused no casualties.

A Hamas militant blew himself up at a border crossing as Israeli forces poured through into Gaza and troops shot dead two of his armed accomplices, the militant group said in a statement. The army had no immediate comment.

The offensive was directed at Jabalya, Gaza's largest refugee camp. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie called it "state terror that deliberately targets civilians" and urged international intervention.

In the latest violence in Jabalya, three Palestinians were wounded by what witnesses said appeared to be an Israeli missile. An army bulldozer drove over a planted explosive device, injuring two troops inside, military sources said.

In Sderot, thousands of Israeli mourners, many wailing with grief, gathered to bury the two-year-old girl and four-year-old boy, the children of Ethiopian immigrants, killed by a rocket on Wednesday. In Jabalya, 30,000 Palestinians, many shouting for revenge, marched in funerals for those killed on Thursday.

Hamas called the Israeli incursion "all-out war" and vowed not to submit. Israeli troops on Friday shelled a guest house of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat near the Erez crossing point in the north of the Gaza Strip, witnesses and security sources said. Later, Israeli tanks and bulldozers started to knock down a surrounding wall, the sources said.

WORLD REACTION: Commenting on Israel's military tactics, a White House spokesman said Israel "has the right to defend itself", but urged both sides to promote the "roadmap" peace plan, backed by President George W. Bush and currently stalled by violence.

In Amsterdam, the European Union's Dutch presidency condemned the deadly attack in Sderot but called Israel's military retaliation "disproportionate," noting the many casualties of Palestinian civilians, including children. -Agencies