GAZA, Oct 10: Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including an eight-year-old boy, in a raid in the Gaza Strip on Friday while mediators struggled to resolve a Palestinian leadership crisis.

Accusing militants of trying to acquire anti-aircraft missiles, Israel sent dozens of tanks backed by helicopter gunships into the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border for what it said was a search for arms-smuggling tunnels.

Troops fought fierce battles with guerillas in the largest army raid in months into the militant stronghold, which followed a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 20 people last Saturday in the Israeli port city of Haifa.

In the West Bank, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat made his first public appearance in three days, attending Friday prayers in an apparent attempt to dispel rumours he might have had a heart attack or is suffering from stomach cancer.

His doctor said he was in good health and recovering well from a stomach ailment. Yasser Arafat, a longtime symbol of Palestinian nationalism, looked pale but showed no sign of strain as he bowed and kneeled in prayer at his Ramallah compound.

Palestinian sources said troops shot dead at least two militants in the Gaza raid, but most of the others killed were unarmed civilians, including an eight-year-old boy hit in the head by tank shell shrapnel and a 15-year-old youth.

Medics said 60 people — among them eight children and at least 10 militants — were wounded, some of them when a helicopter fired a missile into the camp.—Reuters