Israel kills 10 Palestinians in Gaza air raids

GAZA, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Israel killed 10 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in the Gaza Strip on Monday in its heaviest air strikes for months, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon renewed a threat to remove Yasser Arafat.

Nearly 100 people were wounded in five air raids over a 12-hour period, including a missile strike after dark on a roadside crowd.

The attacks followed an ambush by gunmen in which three Israeli soldiers were killed in the West Bank and the launch of eight makeshift rockets from Gaza into southern Israel on Sunday.

The tit-for-tat violence dealt a severe new setback to a stalled U.S.-backed peace plan and touched off new vows of revenge by the Palestinians.

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Palestinian doctor killed treating Gaza wounded

NUSSEIRAT REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Doctor Zain Shahin's first reaction to the Israeli air strike on Monday near the clinic where he worked was to rush out to treat the wounded.

It cost him his life.

Witnesses said the Palestinian doctor rushed to help the wounded lying around a car struck by a missile. But he himself was hit by shrapnel when a second missile slammed into a crowd of people who had also come to see who they could save.

"Doctor Zain rushed to help, and he paid with his life trying to save the lives of others," store owner Hisham Mohammad told Reuters. "He treated a few people on the ground before he...fell among them."

Medical officials said at least seven people, all civilians, were killed and about 70 wounded in the air strike, one of five carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip on Monday.

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