Sharon keeps up Gaza offensive

Senior officers were reported to have told Sharon that Operation Days of Penitence, launched 13 days ago, had now met its main objective and managed to halt rocket attacks on southern Israel.

But Sharon, keen to deliver a decisive blow to Gaza-based militant factions before next year's planned pullout, told top brass that they must push on with the operation, according to Israeli public radio and the Haaretz newspaper.

Much of the operation has been centered around the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the territory. But Haaretz cited senior officers as saying troops were being exposed to an unnecessarily high risk by remaining in the densely populated camp and that rocket launchers had also been moved from Jabaliya.

A total of 111 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Days of Penitence, which is the army's deadliest offensive in the territory, began on September 28.

The latest victim, 24-year-old Maher Khamash, was killed on Monday when troops opened fire as tanks rolled into the town of Deir Al-Balah in the centre of the territory, according to medical sources and witnesses.

Hospital sources also said that two more Palestinians, including a militant, died Monday of injuries they had sustained the day before.

In Jabaliya itself, residents said hundreds of Israeli troops remained on the outskirts of the camp but there were no reports of any new clashes.

Sharon was due to update MPs on the operation and his plan to withdraw all troops and the 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza next year in a speech on the first day of the winter session of parliament.

He has lacked a parliamentary majority since June after some of his traditional right-wing allies baulked at his so-called disengagement plan which also envisages the strengthening of control over larger settlements in the West Bank.

His right-wing Likud party has voted against Sharon inviting the main opposition Labour party into government, a move seen as vital for winning parliamentary approval for the project.

The current governing coalition was able to survive before parliament broke for the summer recess as Labour refrained from backing no-confidence motions.