| Twelve Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli raids on Rafah in the Gaza Strip after a second deadly strike on the army in as many days. Israeli helicopters pounded the Rafah refugee camps along the border with Egypt in southern Gaza, where five soldiers were killed on Wednesday when Palestinian militants fired an anti-tank missile at a military convoy. The strike which killed the crew of an armoured personnel carrier (APC) came a day after six troops were killed in another APC, which was blown up as it carried out an incursion in Gaza City. The ambushes, which inflicted on the Israeli army its heaviest losses for a two-day period since fierce fighting in the northern West Bank town of Jenin in April 2002, were both claimed by the Islamic Jihad group. A first overnight raid on Rafah left seven Palestinians dead and a second Israeli strike killed four more. |