GAZA CITY (AFP) - Five more Palestinians were killed in Gaza as Israel pushed on with a massive operation in the north of the territory despite criticism by officers that the offensive had become counter-productive.
Three Palestinians, including 70-year-old Ismail Assawalhi were killed in a pre-dawn air raid in the southern Gaza town of Rafah where a column of tanks also destroyed 34 homes in a brief incursion.
Two members of the radical Islamist movement Hamas were also killed in an air strike on the northern Jabaliya refugee camp, which has been the main focus of the army's so-called Operation Days of Penitence since its launch late last month.
A total of 124 Palestinians have now been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the offensive, which is the deadliest carried out by the Israeli military since the start of the intifada more than four years ago.
The military broadened its operation on Wednesday by entering the town of Beit Lahiya, which neighbours Jabaliya, before pulling out on Thursday morning.
The town's mayor, Mohammed Al-Masri, said that the scenes of devastation resembled the aftermath of an earthquake.
"Many houses have been destroyed, the electricity, water and phone lines have all been cut and cars have been crushed by the tanks," he said.
Palestinian anger over the operation has also been fuelled by the killing of a number of children, including a schoolgirl who was allegedly pumped full of bullets by a commander last week after she had been gunned down.
Senior army officers warned Thursday that the operation, rather than being expanded, should have been wrapped up.
"The operation has exhausted itself, and continuing it is liable only to lead to complications," one senior officer told the Maariv newspaper, on condition of anonymity.
"Every additional day that passes makes the humanitarian situation in the northern Gaza Strip worse, and in the meantime, the Palestinians are learning the IDF's (army's) patterns and the location of the troops in Jabaliya, Beit Hanun and Beit Lahiya, making it possible for them to strike at the soldiers."
The operation was designed to put an end to rocket attacks fired at southern Israel from Gaza by militant groups such as Hamas.
However, in a sign that the operation is failing to achieve its aims, two more Qassam rockets -- which take their name from Hamas' armed wing -- were fired from the center of Beit Lahiya shortly after troops had moved in on Wednesday.
"The benefit of continuing the operation is doubtful because even when the IDF is in the northern Gaza Strip, this does not completely prevent Qassam rocket fire at Israel," another officer told Maariv.
"Ultimately, after Israel withdraws, the question whether Qassam rockets will continue will only be up to the Palestinian security forces, who will have to stop the fire."
However Prime Minister Ariel Sharon indicated that he was in no mood to order a swift halt to the mission.
"The operation will continue as long as the citizens of Israel are attacked," Sharon was quoted as saying by public radio.
Israel is planning to pull all its troops and the 8,000 Jewish settlers in Gaza out of the territory next year.
Jewish settlers and their supporters, who are fiercely opposed to what they regard as the "forcible transfer of Jews", were due to hold a series of demonstrations across the country later Thursday in their latest show of strength against Sharon's so-called disengagement plan.
Sharon is still trying to cobble together a parliamentary majority for his project and was due to hold talks Thursday with the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party about joining a new coalition government.