September 30, 2004 - 4:45 AM

Eleven die in Mid East violence

By Rami Amichai

SDEROT, Israel (Reuters) - Palestinian militants eluding an army crackdown have killed two Israeli children in a rocket attack from Gaza and
troops killed nine Palestinians in raids in the coastal strip and the West Bank.

The renewed rocket fire despite an Israeli incursion aimed at snuffing out such attacks was a blow to the Jewish state as it seeks to prevent
militants portraying its planned pullout of settlers from Gaza next year as a victory.

Two makeshift Qassam rockets hit a residential block in the town of Sderot close to Israel's fenced border with Gaza on Wednesday, killing
a girl aged 2 and a boy aged 4 as they played on the eve of the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

"I saw one little child without his legs. We tried to help the other one but it was too late," said neighbour Haviv Ben Abbo, who rushed to the
scene when he heard the boom. "All our town is crying."

Thirteen other residents were injured in the town that has borne the brunt of Qassam attacks, emergency services said.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threatened that Israel "would respond with severity and use all measures to respond and stop the firing of
Qassam," an aide said.

A rocket killed two Israelis in the town three months ago, but hundreds of missile volleys from the Gaza Strip have done more to spread
terror than inflict casualties during the past four years of conflict.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian gunman and youths aged 17 and 14 in a crowd of stone throwers. A
13-year-old boy was killed in another Gaza incident. Two Palestinian militants were killed in raids in the West Bank.

Shortly after the Sderot attack, Israeli helicopters launched three air strikes in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp, a stronghold of Islamist
militants behind rocket attacks.

An Israeli military source said the helicopters had targeted Palestinians as they were preparing to fire a Qassam rocket.

Three Palestinians, including a policeman, were killed and at least eight others wounded. In yet another air strike, Israel destroyed an
Islamic charity office in a caravan in Gaza City. The Israeli army said the office funded attacks on Israelis.

SPIRALLING VIOLENCE

Israeli security sources said the military would step up operations in northern Gaza following the latest rocket attack.

"The army knows what to do and will deepen its efforts ... more forces will have to be deployed," a senior source said. Later, Palestinian
witnesses reported Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers rolling into Jabalya as other troops took up positions on rooftops.

Witnesses said the tank treads tore up some farm fields and orchards and also damaged several houses.

Israel Radio said Sharon ordered the Israeli army to send more forces into northern Gaza to set up buffer zones around areas from where
Qassams are launched. Additional reserve troops could be called to help in the operation, the radio said.

Violence has spiralled since Sharon announced his plan to evacuate 8,000 Jewish settlers to "disengage" from conflict with the
Palestinians.

Rocket attacks have been seized on by right-wing opponents of Sharon's plan, who say Israel cannot afford to leave the Gaza Strip because
it will only embolden militants.

Islamic groups like Hamas vow to keep fighting until Israelis had evacuated "all of Palestine". They are dedicated to destroying Israel as well
as regaining the West Bank and Gaza, occupied by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war.

"We begin the fifth year of the Intifada (uprising) and we will keep firing rockets and mortars, we will continue our jihad until all of Palestine is
returned," said Nizar Rayan, a Jabalya Hamas leader brandishing an assault rifle and grenade launcher.

The rockets have become psychologically important for militants now that suicide bombings have become less frequent.