Nine Palestinians, including a four-year-old girl, were killed during Israeli swoops in the Gaza Strip on Monday that touched off fierce battles with gunmen, witnesses said. The bloodshed in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza and around the town of Beit Lehiya in the north was a fresh blow to U.S. and British attempts to promote the prospect of Israeli-Palestinian peace as possible war in Iraq approaches.

Israeli infantry in armored personnel carriers, backed by several tanks and attack helicopters, rolled into Nuseirat, a stronghold of the resistance Islamic group Hamas, before dawn and left several hours later after demolishing a house.

The incursion came a day after an Israeli occupation army bulldozer killed an American woman protester in the Gaza Strip as she demonstrated against a house demolition in the southern town of Rafah. The occupation army called the death a "regrettable accident."

At Nuseirat, Mohammed a-Sa'afin, a local leader of the Islamic Jihad resistance group, took to the roof of his home after Israeli special forces surrounded it.

"Give up, think of your children," an Israeli officer shouted at him. Sa'afin replied with pipe bombs and a volley of bullets from his Kalashnikov rifle. He was shot dead.

His brother Sami, wanted by Israel for alleged resistance activity, was detained along with six other local men.

Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said six other Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, whose age medical officials initially put at two, were killed during the fighting. At least 12 people were wounded.

"We were all squeezed into one room, hiding, because of the heavy fighting outside. Israeli tanks were near our house," said a relative of four-year-old Elham al-Assar.

"Elham stood inside the house with her brothers and cousins. A single bullet penetrated the house and hit her in the chest."
Israeli occupation army sources said the aim of the operation, one of dozens the occupation army has launched in the Gaza Strip since the start of a Palestinian uprising for statehood in September 2000, was aimed at detaining activists behind attacks on Israelis.

In an operation near Beit Lehiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces shot dead two members of the Palestinian naval police, Palestinian security officials said. The occupation army had no immediate comment on the aims of the incursion.

PEACE ACTIVIST KILLED

Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American killed on Sunday, belonged to the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement (ISM) whose declared mission is to end "Israeli occupation in Palestine through non-violent means."

The Israeli occupation army said Corrie, from Olympia Washington, and other protesters had been acting irresponsibly by "intentionally placing themselves in a combat zone."

"It is important to stress that the windows of the bullet-proof bulldozer are very small and the visibility is very limited, and the bulldozer operator did not see the woman," the occupation army said in a statement.

"The Israel Defense Forces express sorrow and continue to investigate the incident."

The ISM said: "When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside, she climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it, wearing a fluorescent jacket, to look directly at the driver who kept on advancing.

"The bulldozer continued to advance so that she was pulled under the pile of dirt and rubble."

Violence has persisted despite a stepped-up U.S. initiative to unveil a long delayed peace "road map" intended to end the violence and establish the groundwork for a Palestinian state.

President Bush , hoping to win European and Arab support for any war with Iraq, said on Friday that Washington would release the peace plan once a new Palestinian prime minister with "real authority" to usher in reform and rein in activists takes office.

At least 1,941 Palestinians and 726 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began.

PHOTO CAPTION

Friends and hospital workers comfort Yousef Abdel Hadi, second left, after his son Ahmed Abdel Hadi 18, was wounded during clashes with Israeli soldiers in Khan Younis , Sunday March 16, 2003 in the Gaza strip . (AP Photo/Yakoup Galwa)