GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement traded threats on Thursday, a day fierce fighting in the Gaza Strip killed 18 Palestinians, including a cameraman for an international news agency.
Hamas vowed to avenge Wednesday's Israeli assault on the impoverished territory, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Islamist movement bears "direct responsibility" for the fighting, which killed three Israeli soldiers.
"We consider that Hamas bears sole, direct responsibility for what happened in Gaza and it will pay the price," Olmert said in an interview with Israel's Maariv newspaper.
Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a widescale operation to oust Hamas from Gaza, but the media has speculated that it may wait until after the week-long Jewish Passover holiday, which begins on Saturday.
Reacting to Wednesday's violence, which also saw the deaths of five Palestinians under the age of 15, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP that "all options are open to repel this aggression against our people."
In an Internet statement Hamas called on its fighters to attack Israel "in every place and with all means available."
Israel troops continued to strike Palestinian militants on Thursday.
They killed two Islamic Jihad fighters during a predawn arrest operation in the West Bank and a militant in southern Gaza who the army said approached a border crossing.
Witnesses said a dozen Israeli military vehicles advanced into the area near the Kerem Shalom crossing and that there was a heavy exchange of fire nearby at Gaza's abandoned and mostly demolished airport.
The fighting erupted a day after militants ambushed Israeli troops near the Nahal Oz fuel terminal and crossing in the central Gaza Strip, killing three soldiers and touching off an Israeli incursion backed by helicopters.
Israeli troops killed 18 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in what was the deadliest day in the Hamas-ruled territory since the beginning of March.
Hundreds of people marched in Gaza City at the funeral for 23-year-old Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank he was filming during Wednesday's incursion.
That blast also killed three other people, including two boys on a bicycle.
Shana had been standing next to a jeep clearly marked with "TV" and "Press" stickers, Reuters said. A videotape found in the camera shows a wide shot with the tank on the horizon seconds before it fired the shell that killed him.
After the incident an Israeli military spokesman said "we regret the death of a photographer, but it must be pointed out that there's a war going on."
Shana had been near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where at least nine Palestinian civilians were killed in an earlier air strike.
According to Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, most of the Palestinians killed on Wednesday were civilians.
In Al-Bureij on Thursday the family members of those killed gathered at outdoor funeral tents to mourn their loved ones.
"May God destroy the Jews. They broke my heart, they tore it out of my chest." said Um Talha, whose 13-year-old son was killed in the air strike.
"He was my youngest son. I hope he will go to paradise and they will go to hell," she said.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, on a visit to Moscow, has strongly condemned the Israeli military assault and on Thursday called for a new Middle East peace conference.
Moscow has been pushing for such a meeting as a follow-up to a US-hosted conference in November that revived peace talks between Abbas and Olmert.
On Monday US national security spokesman Gordon Johnroe said "we are concerned about any ongoing violence, but note that the Israelis and Palestinians continue to discuss the way ahead."
The European Union presidency and the United Nations have also expressed concern about the latest escalation and called on both sides to show restraint.
Israel has been carrying out near-daily military operations in the Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket fire on southern Israel, which has killed 14 people since 2000.
The latest deaths bring to 413 the number of people killed, mostly Gaza militants, since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched formal peace talks in November, according to an AFP count.
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