Four Palestinians killed in Gaza raids

GAZA: Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in raids across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian medics said.   

An Israeli shell killed three Palestinians near a rocket launcher in northern Gaza shortly after two make-shift rockets were fired into Israel, damaging a water pipe.   

Palestinian residents and witnesses said the three were teenage shepherds. Some of their goats were wounded.   

Earlier on Thursday, a woman, 35, died after soldiers stormed a house belonging to a member of Hamas militant near the southern town of Rafah.   

The army had no immediate comment on the woman's death.   

Rafah is an area where Israel believes a soldier abducted by Gazan gunmen in a June 25 border raid, Corporal Gilad Shalit, might be held.   

The raids followed an increase in rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel, including two fired at the town of Sderot early on Thursday, which caused no casualties.   

The troops swept into Rafah, a town along the Egyptian border, under darkness in lightly armoured jeeps, and an Israeli transport helicopter landed at the site after clashes erupted, possibly to evacuate casualties, witnesses said.   

Israeli forces have mounted several major operations in Gaza since Shalit's capture, killing more than 210 Palestinians, about half of them civilians.   

Israel quit Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation in what it called a bid to defuse violence.