Abbas denounces 'Zionist enemy'

"We pray for the souls of our martyrs who fell today in the Zionist enemy's tank shelling in Beit Lahiya," PLO chairman Abbas told an election meeting in southern Gaza.

"We ask the international observers who have come here to monitor the election to go to see what is going on in Gaza. "

It was unusually harsh language from the former prime minister who is considered as a moderate.

An 11-year-old boy was among the seven people killed in the Beit Lahiya region of northern Gaza on Tuesday morning in what the military said was a response to attacks on Israeli targets.

They were killed when troops shelled a farmhouse in the Beit Lahiya area, from where Palestinian militants have frequently fired mortars and rockets into southern Israel, witnesses and security sources said.

The impact of the shelling blew some of the victims to pieces. Body parts could be seen lodged in the wreckage of greenhouses and nearby strawberry patches.

"I saw some masked people setting up the rocket stand and firing, and then a tank came out of Nissanit (a nearby Jewish settlement) and began shelling," said Rida Abu Banat.

"I saw body parts flying everywhere -- hands, legs, heads. I went down immediately to try and help the injured people before the ambulances came. The ground was soaked in blood."