Palestinians look at the bodies of Hosein, top, and Mugheir at the morgue

Additional Reporting By Mostafa al-Sawaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, October 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Three Palestinians, including a woman, were gunned down and nine others injured early Saturday, October 18, by Israeli occupation forces pressing a deadly raid on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

The dead included the leader of Ezzudin al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, Tariq Abol Hosein, 39, and Hamas member Hossam al-Mugheir, 22, who were killed in a firefight with Israeli forces, the Brigades sources told IslamOnline.net over the phone.

"Hosein was killed by Israeli tank shrapnel, which riddled his body, while Mugheir had breathed his last after receiving gunshots in his neck and head," said Rafah hospital director, Dr. Ali Moussa.

Witnesses told IOL that the two resistances fighters were spotted by an Israeli tank while trying to implant the road with explosives devices, adding that the tank immediately shot both of them.

They added that Israeli tanks fire killed Widad al-Agrami, 35, and injured nine others, five seriously.

On Thursday, October 16, Israeli forces gunned down a Palestinian policeman during an early morning incursion.

Israeli troops began their raid in Rafah on October 10 and have remained there for seven of the past eight days.

A total of 14 Palestinians have lost their lives while scores of homes have been razed or gutted, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) count.

Some 1,500 people have been left homeless in Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza as a result of the major ongoing Israeli incursion, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said.

Palestinian officials charge that the extent of the destruction can only be explained as a move by the occupation army to establish a wider no-man's land on the Israeli-controlled border.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan had condemned the killing of Palestinian civilians in the Israeli raid, saying the disproportionate use of force in densely populated areas violated international law.

Rafah governor Majid al-Ghal last week declared the town a disaster zone while human rights watchdog Amnesty International said the Israeli incursion amounted to a "war crime."

Travel Ban

In another development, the United States has suspended official and diplomatic visits to the Gaza Strip following the Gaza Strip bombing of a U.S. diplomatic convoy last week, American diplomats said Friday, October 17.

"There are no embassy travels to Gaza. This applies also for all U.S. government travel. Exceptions could be made on a case-by-case basis," Paul Patin, spokesman for the embassy in Tel Aviv, told AFP.

Charles Hunter, spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem), said: "No trips by the consulate to the West Bank have taken place since the bombing. We are assessing the situation to know when visits can resume."

After Wednesday's bombing, which killed three Americans, the U.S. called on its nationals in Gaza to leave the territory and urged those in the West Bank to take precautions against possible future attacks.

An FBI team, a day after arriving in Israel, met Friday at the Erez crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip with a Palestinian commission set up to investigate the deadly incident.

No details on the talks were available but both sides agreed to meet again in the coming days, said a member of the high-ranking Palestinian delegation led by general security chief Abdelrazeq al-Majaida.