JABALYIA, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Thirteen Palestinians and three Israelis were killed in fierce gunbattles in the northern Gaza Strip after a wave of Israeli air strikes, the worst fighting in the impoverished area in months.
The Israeli raids followed a Palestinian rocket attack Wednesday that claimed the lives of two young children in the Israeli town of Sderot as families filled the streets to celebrate the start of Sukkot, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was holding an emergency meeting with senior military and political officials to discuss how to stop the crudely-made Palestinian rockets being fire on to Israeli territory.
It was the deadliest violence in the Gaza Strip since May when dozens were killed on both sides as Israel sought to destroy tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle weapons from Egypt.
Yasser Arafat`s Palestinian Authority urged the international community to intervene at once and put an end to Israel`s "massacres" in the Gaza Strip, according to an aide to the Palestinian leader.
Israeli public radio reported that the army was considering temporarily re-occupying the Palestinian territory and could mobilize reserve troops.
The narrow streets of the impoverished Jabaliya refugee camp, which is home to 100,000 people, resembled a battlefield and hospitals were put in emergency mode to treat the flow of casualties.
Dozens of militants armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) hid in alleys, away from Israeli snipers posted on rooftops.
Loud explosions could be sporadically heard as troops and militants engaged in intense exchanges of fire. At least seven houses and the outside wall of a school were destroyed by the army.
Israeli troops first launched a massive raid on the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday in a bid to stop the firing of the so-called Qassam rockets, named after the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas.
It intensified after two Israeli children were killed Wednesday in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, just across the Gaza border.
At least five of the Palestinian casualties were armed militants who clashed with Israeli troops near the Jabaliya camp and Beit Hanun.
Another two Palestinian gunman were shot dead by troops after they opened fire on an Israeli woman near the Jewish settlement of Eli Sinai.
"An Israeli civilian was jogging near Eli Sinai when she was shot dead by Palestinian terrorists that attacked her," an Israeli military source said. "Another soldier was moderately wounded and one of the terrorists was hit and probably died."
An army spokeswoman said troops had caught up with another militant who had fled the scene of the attack and killed him.
"Our forces went after him, spotted him and gunned him down. The firing triggered an enormous blast, which indicated that the Palestinian was apparently wearing an explosive belt," she said.
Israeli public radio said there was another Israeli fatality in the Eli Sinai attack but the army could not immediately confirm the report.
The other Palestinian victims, killed by snipers and tank shells in and around the Jabalyia refugee camp which troops were trying to storm, were all believed to be unarmed civilians, including at least one teenager.
The army also reported the death of one of its troops in a grenade attack.
"The gunmen launched grenades and opened fire at the soldiers at an observation post. The soldiers identified the two gunmen and returned fire. An IDF soldier was killed and two soldiers were injured," he said.
"The gunmen were killed during the exchanges of fire."
Seventy Palestinians were reported wounded, among them a news cameraman who was in serious condition after being hit by gunfire in Jabaliya.
The latest bout of killings brings to 4,374 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, almost four years ago to the day. They include 3,350 Palestinians and 953 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
In Israel, Sharon was mulling a military strategy to put an end to rocket attacks in talks with senior political and security officials.
Sharon told them to "take every necessary measure to stop the firing of Qassams," government spokesman Avi Pazner added, referring to the homemade weapons named after the Hamas military wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades.
Senior Hamas leader Said Siam said his group considered the launching of rockets against Sderot as "a legitimate act of self-defense against (Israel`s) aggression."
"Our mujahadeen (fighters) will only stop firing rockets if the agression stops," he said in a statement.