By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel stepped up air strikes in the GazaStrip on Thursday, killing five Palestinian gunmen after thefirst death in Israel in nine months from a rocket attacklaunched from the Hamas-controlled territory.
"We are at the height of the battle," Israeli PrimeMinister Ehud Olmert said in Tokyo, where he met U.S. Secretaryof State Condoleezza Rice before her visit next week to Israeland the occupied West Bank to try to push along peace talks.
But Olmert appeared to suggest a major Israeli groundoperation in the Gaza Strip was not imminent, saying Israel'sfight against militants was a "long process" and it had "nomagic formula" to halt nearly daily cross-border rocketattacks.
A total of 16 Palestinians have been killed in the GazaStrip by Israel since Wednesday, when a rocket strike on theborder town of Sderot, an attack claimed by the Islamist Hamasgroup, killed an Israeli civilian for the first time since May.
Most of the Palestinian dead were militants but alsoincluded six-month-old Mohammed al-Burai, who was killed in anair strike on the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United NationsRelief and Works Agency, said the infant was the grandson of aguard living in a family home in the compound of an UNRWAschool struck in the attack by shrapnel and debris.
The boy's father carried his body, wrapped in a green Hamasflag, in his arms at a funeral attended by hundreds.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas, who is negotiating with Israel, said in astatement its military actions "meant only one thing: theIsraeli government ... aims to destroy the peace process".
In Sderot, Israelis mourned 47-year-old Ronnie Yehiye, afather of four who was killed in the rocket attack. A truckdriver, Yehiye had undergone a kidney transplant and died in acollege where he was receiving vocational retraining.
FORCE
In Tokyo, Rice was asked by reporters whether she urgedOlmert not to use disproportionate force in responding to therockets.
"I think that's not a good way to address this issue. Theissue is that the attacks -- rocket attacks -- need to stop,"she said.
Those killed in the latest air strikes in the Gaza Stripwere three fighters from Hamas and two from the PopularResistance Committees (PRC) armed group. An Israeli militaryspokeswoman said the air force had targeted gunmen.
"These stupid missiles being launched -- firecrackers, butat the end they have killed Israeli civilians -- we condemnthis, clearly, openly, straightforwardly," Palestinian ForeignMinister Riyad al-Malki said.
"But at the same time, we condemn all the Israeliincursions into Gaza, killing Palestinian civilians, destroyingtheir houses, preventing them from having a normal life," hesaid.
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's top leader in the Gaza Strip, saidin a statement "repeated crimes by the Zionist occupationagainst our people and the targeting of children are proof thatthe leaders of the occupation are suffering from hysteria".
In the West Bank town of Nablus, Israeli troops killed twomilitants in a raid on Balata refugee camp, a hospital officialand local residents said. An Israeli army spokeswoman saidtroops opened fire after spotting armed men threatening them.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Tova Cohen inTokyo, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Atef Saad in Nablus and DanWilliams, Ori Lewis and Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem;writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; editing by PhilippaFletcher)
