Israeli soldiers have shot dead two Palestinian militants on the second day of a raid in the southern Gaza Strip meant to stop a spate of mortar attacks.

In all, at least 11 Palestinians have been killed and 30 wounded in the Khan Younis incursion. Medics in Gaza’s second largest city say Palestinians have been unable to bury any of the dead because Israeli forces control the local cemetery. The Israeli army says at least 30 rockets and mortar bombs were fired at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip this week, killing a foreign worker and wounding 17 other people. This weekend Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon is finalising a deal bringing the opposition Labour Party into his government, helping him push through his plan to withdraw troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip. Labour hopes Sharon’s unilateral disengagement plan can become part of a new peace process.

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