GAZA CITY, 15 August 2007 — Israeli troops and aircraft killed six Palestinians in raids on the Gaza Strip yesterday. The dead included three Hamas fighters, one Islamic Jihad fighter and two civilians. The raid injured at least 26 people.

Hamas said one of its men died in a predawn airstrike, east of the town of Khan Younis, and a second was killed along with his 70-year-old mother when ground troops fired at their house. The body of a third was found later in the day.

An Israeli Army statement said that in an operation against “terror threats” from the southern Gaza Strip, forces fired at armed militants in four separate incidents and hit the targets on each occasion. A spokesman said aircraft carried out three attacks and ground forces shot an armed man posing a threat to soldiers.

Israeli Army Radio said troops rounded up all local males above the age of 16 and interrogated them for information on fighters. About 100 people were arrested by Israeli troops, the army and Hamas said. Later, Israeli aircraft struck a group of Islamic Jihad fighters as they came out of a car in Khan Younis, killing one and seriously wounding another.

Palestinian sources said a second civilian, Ibrahim Al-Shami, 40, was shot dead by soldiers when he went out onto the roof of his house.

An Israeli Army spokesman said the ground operation was carried out to try to find a suspected tunnel network at the Gaza frontier and prevent cross-border Palestinian rocket firing.

Meanwhile, Hamas yesterday welcomed comments by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and a British parliamentary committee that urged a rethink of the West’s boycott of the movement ruling the Gaza Strip.

“The government of (sacked Prime Minister Ismail) Haniyeh appreciates the statement from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi calling for dialogue between the West and Hamas,” Haniyeh’s office said in a statement. It also “appreciates the statement from the foreign affairs committee of the British Parliament which condemned the British government opposition to Hamas.”

Hamas is considered a terror group by the European Union, Israel and the United States and has been boycotted by the West since it swept a parliamentary election in January 2006.

Two months ago it routed forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas from Gaza, splitting the Palestinians into two entities, with Abbas and his Fatah party ruling the occupied West Bank and Hamas controlling Gaza.

Prodi told reporters late Sunday while on holiday in Tuscany that it was “impossible to have peace in the Middle East if the Palestinians are divided.” “Hamas exists. This is a complex reality and we have to help it develop so that it works toward peace,” he said.

In Britain, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons on Monday released a report criticizing London’s foreign policy in the Middle East. It urged a rethink on British policy on Hamas and suggested London deal directly with moderate members of the movement to help the peace process.

Israel said it would be a “huge” mistake for the international community to try to bridge differences between Hamas and Fatah. “I know that it looks tempting and I know that the international community is eager to see a kind of an understanding between Hamas and Fatah,” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a news conference with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso in Jerusalem. “This is wrong. This is a mistake. Big mistake. Huge,” Livni said, tapping the table for emphasis.

Livni said the international community’s role was critical and “any compromise with terror, any compromise with these extremists, can lead to undermining the new government in the Palestinian Authority.”

“The idea is that now there is a chance in the dialogue between Israel and the new Palestinian government. We can reach something. It’s there,” Livni said.

Steny Hoyer, the majority leader in the Democratic-led US House of Representatives, emerged from a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad voicing confidence Fatah would not seek a new unity pact with Hamas.

— Additional input from agencies