The invasion sparked a gun battle as Palestinians, roused by a message broadcast on mosque loudspeakers, took up arms to oppose the advancing forces. Families in the area of Brazil fled for refuge away from the fighting, witnesses said.

A hospital source said one Palestinian was injured with bullet wounds in the legs.

Up to 50 tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into two districts of Palestinian-ruled Rafah and its Brazil camp near the border with Egypt. Israeli troops went house-to-house in searches.

Helicopters flew over the armored forces as they made their way deep into residential areas, and at least one fired what security sources and witnesses said was a missile.

An Israeli army spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Rafah has been a flash point of violence between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops, which patrol a strip of land along the border between the Rafah area and Egypt.

Israel has raided the camp before in what it calls operations to destroy houses used by gunmen as cover to shoot on its forces, or to destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons.

It was the third major raid into the Gaza Strip this week. Israel sent forces into the central town of Deir al-Balah earlier in the week and arrested a militant leader.

Israeli tanks rolled into a Palestinian-controlled area of the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, triggering sporadic gunbattles before withdrawing, witnesses said.

The army said it arrested four men during that raid in the village of Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, and arrested six people in other parts of Gaza during the night.

The Rafah raid came hours after the Israeli army reported a mortar had been fired, apparently from the Gaza Strip, and landed in a Negev community, and an anti-tank rocket landed near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, slightly damaging a bus.

There were no injuries in either incident.

Palestinians rose up against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza almost two years ago.

(China Daily September 13, 2002)