Israeli tanks flatten homes in Gaza

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- In a response to a Palestinian attack on an Israeli outpost Wednesday, Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the Palestinian refugee camp at Rafah in southern Gaza and destroyed at least 30 homes, the Palestinian Authority said Thursday.

An account on the Palestinian news agency WAFA said 12 tanks and four bulldozers, penetrated 100 to 200 yards into the Block "O" area in the Rafah refugee camp near the Salah El-Din Gate on the Egyptian border and started destroying homes. A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces had no comment on the report.

The WAFA account said 31 families comprising approximately 200 people were displaced.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, accused the Israelis of trying to wreck any chances for the resumption of peace talks.

IN-DEPTH  CNN NewsPass Video    •  Palestinian politics  MORE STORIES   •  IDF: Arms workshops destroyed in Rafah  EXTRA INFORMATION   •  Gallery: Palestinian fatalities  RESOURCES   •  Victims of terror   •  TIME.com: Orchestrating a common ground MORE STORIES 'Compelling evidence' Arafat knew of arms

''We call on the United States of America and the countries related to the peace process to intervene immediately, to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression and escalation,'' he said.

A lull in violence in the Middle East was shattered by an attack Wednesday by two Palestinian gunmen on an Israeli military outpost near the convergence of the Gaza, Israel, Egypt border.

The two Palestinian gunmen cut through a security fence and killed an Israeli officer and three Israeli soldiers before being killed themselves, the IDF said.

The radical Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack at the Israeli army post at Kerem Shalom.

A short time later, Palestinian military sources said, a number of Israeli tanks and jeeps had gone into a Palestinian military base in Rafah.

The Rafah area is normally under full Palestinian control.

The base belongs to the Palestinian navy and is adjacent to an Israeli army post. Palestinian forces had evacuated the base before the Israeli troops arrived.

The IDF said it had also flattened to Palestinian security force positions near Kerem Shalom.