GAZA CITY, Oct 10 (AFP) - Israeli forces launched a new series of air strikes on a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing two Palestinians and wounding several more, including militants.
In the latest violence, four Palestinians were wounded when Israeli forces fired a rocket from the air on the Jabaliya camp, the focus of a massive Israeli onslaught that has left more than 100 Palestinians dead in 12 days.
Among the injured were three members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, one of whom later died of his injuries, Palestinian medical sources said.
"Our units in the area spotted terrorists trying to plant an explosve charge. The air force took action and fired in their direction," an Israeli military source said.
Earlier, hospital sources said one Palestinian was killed and three others were wounded in another strike on a house in Jabaliya while another man wounded an air raid on the camp earlier this month died of his injuries.
Sunday's deaths brought to 1087 the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the "Days of Penitence" operation on September 28, drawing fierce condemnation across the Arab world.
Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa charged that the United States was abetting Israel's deadly operation, which the army says its aimed at halting rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
"The Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people is continuing because some superpowers are encouraging Israel," Mussa told reporters.
Mussa did not name the United States but his comments came amid exasperation at the 22-member body over a US veto last week that blocked a draft UN resolution demanding Israel halt its Gaza offensive.
He warned that the "international immunity" he said Israel enjoys would not last forever.
Since the start of the intifada or Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000, a total of 4,471 people have been killed, including 3,443 Palestinians and 954 Israelis.
The Israeli parliament is due to open its winter session on Monday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial plan to pull out from Gaza next year at the top of the agenda.
Sharon -- who no longer commands a majority in the 120-member Knesset because of the pullout plan -- is due to make a speech, public television reported, predicting a stormy session in the assembly.
He has vowed to evacuate Jewish settlers and the military from the Gaza Strip and pull out from four isolated settlements in the northern West Bank in 2005, despite vehement opposition even from within his own Likud party.
Meanwhile, US Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry fired a new broadside at President George W. Bush over his Middle East policy, accusing him of fighting a "myopic kind of war."
As president, Kerry said he would approach the leaders of Egypt and Jordan to change negative views about the United States in the region and get US businesses involved to improve the Middle East's economy.
"We just haven't been doing any of this stuff. We've been stunningly disengaged, with the exception of Iraq," he told the New York Times Magazine.
"I mean, you ever hear anything about the 'road map' anymore?" he asked, referring to the internationally-backed plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
On Saturday, he warned that if he wins the November 2 election there will be no reprieve for Arafat, declared persona non grata by both Israel and the Bush administration.
"We have been at this for a long time. Mr Arafat has proven his unwillingness and incapacity to be be able to act as a legitimate partner in the peace process," Kerry said at a campaign rally.
Kerry also said his job if elected would be to "hold those Arab countries accountable that still support terrorists, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Aqsa Brigades, and others."
Bush has riled US allies in Europe and the Middle East by refusing to deal with Arafat, saying he had links to terrorism and could not be trusted to make peace.