Samar Helles, an 8-year old Palestinian girl, is inspected by doctors in a hospital after she was injured during the Israeli missile attacks in Gaza City

GAZA CITY, January 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two Israeli armored columns backed by helicopters launched raids into the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah in which ten Palestinians were wounded, Palestinian security and hospital sources said early Monday, January 6.

Helicopter gunships fired on the town's refugee camp as some 20 tanks moved in and troops blew up a house belonging to a member of the Islamic Jihad movement, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Israeli helicopters fired some 10 rockets on Gaza City, causing a power cut. Palestinian security sources told AFP the buildings targeted were two metal workshops. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.

A second incursion of similar size was mounted in another part of Rafah. A military communiqué said the destroyed house belonged to Hassan Abu Aramneh who had been behind the December 20 killing of a rabbi in Netzer Hazani settlement in the Gaza Strip, AFP said.

Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip occur on a regular basis under the pretext of hunting down activists and carry out reprisals for attacks.

A Palestinian double resistance attack in Tel Aviv took place Sunday, January 5, killing 23 people as well as the bombers.

The attacks came following a severe Israeli crackdown in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in which dozens of Palestinians have been killed.

Israeli troops have also occupied most of the West Bank for more than six months, making hundreds of arrests and destroying the homes of Palestinian activists in a controversial policy aimed at deterring resistance groups from carrying out attacks.

Fatah denies responsibility of attacks

Fatah, denied Sunday evening any claims of responsibility of  the attack.

In a statement IslamOnline received a copy of, Fatah denied that the two bombers named by an earlier false statement, had any links to the group which just celebrated its 38th anniversary.

"After checking the membership files we can confirm that the two names mentioned have nothing to do with our organization," it said.

In addition to condemning the attack on civilians -- many of them foreign workers -- the statement "warns the people behind this attack not to use the name of the movement."

It said the timing of the attack was aimed at undermining scheduled talks between Fatah, the main party within the Palestine Liberation Organization also headed by Arafat, and other factions, in particular with the Islamic resistance group Hamas in Cairo.

A statement reportedly by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades received by AFP in Gaza City after Sunday's blast claimed responsibility for the attack near Tel Aviv's Old Central Bus Station.

Israeli cabinet gives more ‘green light’ to army

Meanwhile, Israel's security cabinet early Monday gave the green light to army ‘proposals for retaliation’ after the double resistance bombing in Tel Aviv, the second-worst attack in the current Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation.

The mini-cabinet decided to "intensify the anti-terrorist fight" including strikes against Palestinian activists, military radio said.

The blasts occurred in rapid succession during rush hour Sunday on two parallel streets in the poor Neve Shaanan district.

Seventeen bodies, including those of the bombers, were recovered at the scene, police said. Another eight people died in hospital.

Police said 68 injured persons were still in hospital on Monday, two in critical condition and five serious.

Around half the victims are thought to have been among the migrant workers who live in the district, many working illegally.

The two bombers, carrying 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of explosives each according to police, were blasted apart.

A Palestinian woman looks at damaged homes of her neighbors which were hit during the Israeli missile attacks in Gaza City

At its overnight emergency meeting the security cabinet rejected a call by hardline Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat to be exiled, with Netanyahu himself admitting the "time was not ripe" for such a move, the military radio said.

Sources close to the government said the mini-cabinet had decided to ban a planned meeting in Ramallah, on the West Bank, of the Palestinian Central Council to discuss the "roadmap" for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement and a draft constitution for the Palestinian Authority.

The Israelis also forbade Palestinian Authority representatives from going to London this month to discuss internal reforms.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in December that he would invite Palestinian leaders as well as representatives of the Quartet (EU, U.S., UN and Russia) and other countries in the region to London for a meeting devoted to reforms.

The security cabinet also decided to close three Islamic colleges in the occupied West Bank.

At a public meeting here shortly after the attack, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon again accused the Palestinian Authority of supporting terrorism.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the blasts, saying in a statement from Gaza City that it would pursue "with firmness" those who were behind them.

The latest deaths bring the toll from the uprising against the Israeli occupation to 2,838, most of them Palestinians.