BEIT LAHIYA, Oct 13: The Israeli army widened its massive operation in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as an 11-year-old schoolgirl became one of the latest victims of a fortnight of violence there.

Dozens of tanks and bulldozers rolled into the town of Beit Lahiya in the early hours as the focus of Operation Days of Penitence, which has claimed the lives of 118 Palestinians, shifted north from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp.

They flattened several buildings and fields but failed to prevent Palestinian militants from firing more home-made Qassam rockets at Israel. The campaign was condemned by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who said Israel was failing to meet its obligation to avoid innocent civilian casualties and humanitarian suffering.

A Palestinian teenager was shot dead and two others wounded by Israeli army gunfire in the Rafah refugee camp late on Wednesday, Palestinian medical sources said. And a man wounded by Israeli tank fire in the Jabaliya camp on Sunday died of his injuries, hospital sources in Gaza Cit said.

Colonel Eyal Eizenberg, commander of the Israeli army's elite Givati infantry regiment, told military radio his troops met significant resistance, including firing from the direction of mosques. "Explosive charges were operated against us and we were also met with anti-tank rockets which hit one of our (armoured) vehicles," he said. -AFP