Panic as the Israeli raid goes on (AFP)

GAZA CITY, December 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In one of the bloodiest days in the occupied Palestinian territories in recent months, eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces during a raid in southern Gaza, hours after two Israeli soldiers and two resistance fighters died in a shootout, sources on both sides said Tuesday, December 23.

Palestinian medical and security sources said the eight, including a policeman and a rescue worker, were killed in Rafah refugee camp during  a pre-dawn Israeli incursion involving some 15 jeeps and armored vehicles, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Medical sources added that another 34 people had been injured, eight of whom were in a serious condition.

Among those injured were three children aged between three and five, they added.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that an incursion was taking place in Rafah to "destroy tunnels linking the Gaza Strip with Egypt for arms smuggling."

The latest deaths brought to 3,666 the number of people killed since the start of the Intifada at the end of September 2000, including 2,741 Palestinians and 856 Israelis.

Rafah has seen a number of large-scale Israeli army raids in recent months.

Six Palestinians were killed two weeks ago in an incursion to detain a wanted leader from the resistance Jihad group.

Evacuating their home before Israeli bulldozers pull it down over their heads (AFP)

Some 14 Palestinians were killed and over 120 injured in Israeli raids in Rafah over an 11-day period in October, which drew sharp criticism from rights groups and the United Nations.

Forty tunnels had been allegedly discovered and destroyed since the start of the year, according to claims by the Israeli spokesman.

He said the soldiers had "hit at least four terrorists shooting at them" but he did not know if they had been killed.

Israel, which occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem after its 1967 war against its Arab neighbors and has defied dozens of U.N. Security Council resolutions to withdraw, insists on calling Palestinian resistance "acts of terrorism".

Separately, Israeli military sources said they had found the body of the second of two Palestinians who were involved in an attack on Israeli troops late Monday in the center of Gaza.

Two Israeli officers were killed in the clash, which occurred near the Kissufim crossing point, a road that links Israeli territory to Gush Katif, a cluster of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.

Israeli military sources claimed the attack occurred after soldiers in an observation post had spotted a Palestinian crawling towards the road leading to Gush Katif.

When two Israeli officers headed out to drive towards the spot in a jeep, the Palestinian threw a grenade at them, killing them both, the sources said.

Palestinian witnesses said that Islamic Jihad's armed wing and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.