GAZA CITY, Sept 25: Six Palestinians, including five militants and a toddler, and one Israeli soldier were killed on Thursday as fresh violence flared in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, security sources on both sides said.

The Israeli army raids, which targeted the hardline Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, came after about a two-week lull in major violence in the conflict which has raged for nearly three years.

They also came despite recognition by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom that Israel’s threat to “remove” Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, following the near collapse of a US-backed peace plan known as the “roadmap,” had curbed Palestinian attacks.

Most of the deaths came when a column of about 35 Israeli armoured vehicles, including tanks, backed up by a helicopter gunship, pushed into central Gaza’s al-Bureij refugee camp in a pre-dawn raid, Palestinian security sources said.

The incursion sparked a fierce gunbattle that left the Israeli soldier and two Palestinian militants from the armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad dead.

Another six soldiers and at least one other Palestinian were wounded in the operation aimed at dismantling the groups fighting Israeli occupation. The Israeli army said it found homemade Qassam rockets and mortars which have been used to launch attacks across the border and on Jewish settlements.

A three-year-old Palestinian girl also died of “fright” during the large-scale operation, family and hospital sources said.

Israeli troops staged another early morning raid into the southern West Bank city of Hebron and killed two Islamic Jihad members, security sources on both sides said.

The two militants were shot dead during a raid on the house where they were holed up, they said.

A third Palestinian was seriously wounded in the gunbattle in the town, where eight senior members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been killed over the past two months, Israeli military sources said.

In another incident, a suspected Palestinian militant was shot dead by Israeli troops near the Jewish settlement of Morag in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.

The man was not immediately identified, but Israeli military sources said troops guarding Morag opened fire on two suspects approaching the settlement.

One of them was hit but the other escaped. The body was discovered later Thursday morning and a bomb was found next to it, the sources said.

Following a meeting on Wednesday with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Israel’s foreign minister, Shalom, said: “I think Arafat takes us more seriously. We can see that, in the last few days, he is trying to ask Hamas and other extremists not to carry out more attacks against us.”

“I don’t want to give the exact details what we should do if such (a major) kind of attack should take place, but I think Arafat understands very well what it would mean,” he said.

The Israeli leadership and defence establishment have been divided over the benefits of expelling Arafat.

The defence establishment was also shaken on Thursday after a group of Israeli air force pilots submitted a petition to Air Force Commander Dan Halutz, saying that they were no longer prepared to take part in missions they regarded as illegal and immoral.

Only nine of the signatories are believed to still be in active service, but Halutz indicated they would be kicked out if they did not retract their statements.

Israeli Prime Minister Aril Sharon also warned the pilots not to become embroiled in politics.

“The army carries out the instructions of the political echelon, and it will continue to act against terrorists and murderers whose sole purpose is to strike at crowded population centres inhabited by innocent citizens,” he said.

“This is a very severe matter, which will be dealt with soon and appropriately.”—AFP