By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent  

GAZA CITY, May 11 (IslamOnline.net) – The Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, said its military wing killed six Israeli soldiers Tuesday, May 11, during an Israeli incursion in Gaza City, which has claimed the lives of five Palestinians.

A bomb ripped through an Israeli armored personnel carrier during a major raid by the occupation army into el-Zeitoun neighborhood at dawn, killing six enemy soldiers, said Ez-Edin el-Qassam Brigades in a statement sent to IslamOnline.net.

Resistance fighters also destroyed two Israeli tanks and three military bulldozers with explosives, it added.

"We have filmed the operation and we have photos of killed Zionists," said the statement.

The Israeli raid, in which about 70 tanks and armored vehicles swept deep into the neighborhood, left five Palestinians dead, witnesses told IOL.

Palestinian medical sources said the dead included Ammar el-Jirjawi, 24, and Fadi Nassar from el-Qassam Brigades.

Reception Manager at al-Shifaa Hospital in Gaza City , Bakr Abu Safiya, told IOL that 27 other Palestinians were wounded during the large-scale Israeli sweep, several of them in critical conditions.

Eyewitnesses further told IOL that Israeli occupation soldiers occupied the roofs of high building and used them as sniper posts.

They added that Apache helicopters fired at least two missiles as the soldiers surrounded tens of Palestinian houses and tanks fired intensively while advancing.

Resistance fighters from el-Qassam Brigades deployed immediately in the area of the Israeli raid and heavy gun battles flared up, according to eyewitnesses.

Israeli settlers radio confirmed the killing of the six Israeli soldiers during el-Zeitoun raid.

Many Palestinians were wounded during the raid

The Israeli army, however, said only that "several soldiers were wounded", mentioning no killings.

The deaths are one of the most severe military blows dealt to Israel by the resistance group since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada and come weeks after the back-to-back extrajudicial executions of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor in Gaza Abdelaziz Rantissi.

The Israeli army said troops entered Gaza City in what it called "an operation aimed at the terrorist infrastructure there," according to Israeli daily Ha'aretz.

"A force has entered the [Zeitoun neighborhood] and we are carrying out a pinpoint operation against the terrorist infrastructure," an Israeli military source told the paper.

Israel calls Palestinian resistance against its occupation troops "terrorism".

On January 28, at least 13 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid into el-Zeitoun neighborhood.