ARABS-ISRAEL - Nov 1 - Eight Killed As Israelis Try To Halt Palestinian Rockets.

Seven Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed on Wednesday as the Israeli army launched one of its biggest raids into the Gaza Strip in recent months. Israel's security cabinet met to discuss widening the Gaza offensive but decided to hold off a major reinvasion of the territory that Israel relinquished more than a year ago. Wednesday's incursion, involving troops, tanks and helicopters, centred on the northern town of Beit Hanoun from where Palestinian militants fire rockets into southern Israel. Palestinian hospital officials said most of the 30 people wounded were gunmen but included a woman and a young boy. The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said last month that 315 Palestinians, mostly civilians and including 62 children, had been killed since the Israeli army re-entered Gaza this summer following the abduction in June of Corporal Gilad Shalitan, an Israeli soldier. Israeli operations have focused on the southern Gaza border where the army says militants are using tunnels to smuggle weapons from Egypt, and on the northern border with Israel, where it is attempting to stem the rocket fire. Eight of the home-made missiles were fired at southern Israel on Wednesday. Israeli officials, including Amir Peretz, defence minister, have said they would not allow Palestinian militants to turn Gaza into another Lebanon. The Israeli army faced a tough 34-day campaign this summer against Lebanon's Hizbullah movement, which had heavily fortified the south of the country and deployed thousands of rockets there. Previous Israeli operations in Gaza to free Corporal Shalit failed and efforts to secure his release have switched to Cairo, where Egyptian authorities are trying to arrange a prisoner swap in talks with officials of the Palestinian Authority's ruling Hamas movement. The latest violence overshadowed efforts by Mahmoud Abbas, the PA's Fatah president, to establish a national unity government or to replace the current Hamas government with a cabinet of technocrats. Abbas appears to have deferred plans to put a further ultimatum to Hamas for fear of provoking a civil war between it and Fatah. On Wednesday both he and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas PM, separately condemned the latest Israeli offensive. Abbas said Israel was involved in a dangerous cycle of operations in the Gaza Strip. Despite months of talks between Abbas and Hamas officials, the two sides have failed to reach agreement on forming a unity government that would meet international demands that it recognise Israel, forsake violence and accept existing peace agreements. A positive outcome on a prisoner swap might help ease the tensions between the rival factions. Fatah officials fear, however, that it could further boost the popularity of Hamas. The Islamist movement continues to enjoy widespread support despite being unable to pay public sector salaries because of an international financial boycott. The Israeli military said that during Wednesday's incursion, Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile at its troops. The Israeli operation in the north was expected to last several days. Israel Radio said that in the southern Gaza Strip, near the town of Rafah, the army massed dozens of armoured vehicles and warned Palestinian residents to evacuate their homes.