Israeli occupation forces killed at least 11 Palestinians, including some torn apart by a tank shell, in a major raid in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after a resistance bomber killed 15 people in Israel. The tank round crashed into a crowd trying to hose down a commercial building set ablaze during the incursion into Jabalya refugee camp which triggered hours of pitched fighting, witnesses and medics said.

The Gaza bloodshed and Wednesday's bus bombing in the port city of Haifa, the first resistance bombing in Israel for two months, battered U.S. hopes of dampening violence in the 29-month-old conflict ahead of possible war against.

"It is an act of revenge by the Israeli government that has claimed the lives of 11 people and wounded 140," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters about the raid.

Doctors at Gaza's Shifa Hospital confirmed the casualty figures.

Bus Bomber Identified

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron identified the bomber as Imran Salim al Qawasmeh, a 21-year-old activist for the Islamic militant group Hamas and said he had been missing for several days.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said a letter praising the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington was found on the bomber's body.

Brigadier-General Gadi Shamni, Israel's Gaza brigade commander, said the Jabalya operation was not retribution for the Haifa attack but a continuation of an offensive against resistance activists in the area that began two weeks ago.

Helicopters Take Part in Raid

In Jabalya, Israeli helicopters raked streets with machinegun fire trying to pick off scores of resistance men scrambling to take up positions. No Israeli casualties were reported. Around 90,000 people are crammed into the two-square-mile camp, a hotbed of Palestinian resistance at the forefront of a Palestinian uprising for independence in Gaza and the West Bank.

Occupation Troops blew up family homes of at least two Hamas activists, witnesses said. Israel has a policy, condemned internationally, of demolishing activists' houses to try to deter violence.

In the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Israeli occupation troops killed a Palestinian Jihad resistance man in a shootout as they tried to detain him, Palestinian witnesses said.

Israel's security cabinet, in a meeting after Wednesday's bus bombing, decided to further step up military action against Palestinian "terrorist" cells, Israeli security sources said.

Hamas Praises Attack

A spokesman for the Islamic resistance group Hamas, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, praised the bombing but did not claim responsibility. "We will not stop our resistance," he said. "We are not going to give up in the face of the daily killing" of Palestinians.

After the bus bombing, some Palestinians in Gaza called each other on cell phones. Some were jubilant.

"It's about time. They've kept on hitting us and killing us, and now we've struck back," said an ice cream vendor in Gaza, who refused to give his name.

Latest Closure Further Threatens to Aggravate the Crippled Palestinian Economy

The indefinite closure of West Bank and Gaza threatens to aggravate a crippled Palestinian economy. Two reports issued by the United Nations and World Bank on Wednesday linked such closures to the economic woes, saying almost 2 million Palestinians live on less than DLR. 2 a day.

Palestinian Authority, Washington & London Condemn Resistance Bus Attack

President Bush denounced the Haifa bombing, saying terrorists would not prevail. "The president condemns in the strongest terms today's attack on innocents in Israel," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "His message to terrorists is that their efforts will not be successful."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged Israel and the Palestinians to work toward peace. "There is no justification for attacks on innocent civilians," he said. "Attacks like these will not help the Palestinian cause."

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat condemned "any attack that is targeting civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli." But he added: "We reject the Israel government finger-pointing that the Palestinian Authority is responsible."

PHOTO CAPTION

Police work at the scene of a bus bombing in the northern Israeli city of Haifa Wednesday March 5, 2003. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) - Mar 05 1:19