GAZA, Nov 1: Israel killed eight Palestinians and wounded 45 people in a series of air strikes and gunbattles in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

The raid was one of the biggest since Israel launched an offensive in Gaza to press for the release of a soldier captured by Palestinian figh-ters on June 25 in a cross-border attack and to halt militant rocket fire into the Jewish state.

One Israeli soldier was killed in a gunbattle, the army said. The armed wing of the ruling Hamas Islamist movement said its gunmen killed the soldier and wounded others.

Israeli soldiers backed by armoured vehicles entered northern Gaza before dawn and fighting quickly erupted, followed by air strikes and tank shelling, witnesses said.

Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was waging “all-out war”, and called the operation “despicable”.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he hoped the attacks, which he branded a “massacre”, would not harm Egyptian-brokered talks trying to arrange a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for the release of the captive soldier.

A Hamas delegation has been holding negotiations with Egyptian officials in Cairo this week on a possible deal.

FIERCE CLASHES: Air strikes around the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun killed a Palestinian policeman and two gunmen, including one from Hamas, Palestinian security sources said. Three other Hamas gunmen were killed by tank fire and in clashes, witnesses said.