Gaza City (Gaza Strip): Israel struck hard against targets in Gaza today, killing at least 20 Palestinians in a day of heavy fighting that also saw three Israeli soldiers killed in a brazen Hamas ambush.

Among the dead was a Reuters news agency cameraman killed while covering the conflict.

The sudden surge in violence came after a relatively quiet month and threatened to unravel an Egyptian effort to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

Today's death toll was the highest since a broad Israeli military offensive in early March that killed more than 120 Gazans, including dozens of civilians. Since then, Israel and Hamas appeared to be honouring an informal truce, though punctuated with Palestinian rocket attack, some Israeli air strike and minor border skirmishes.

That changed dramatically and suddenly today, with no apparent trigger indicating that the relative calm was more coincidence than plan. In the day's deadliest incident, an Israeli helicopter fire four missiles at targets near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. At least 12 Palestinians, including five children aged 12-15,were killed, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Fadal Shana, the Reuters TV cameraman, was also killed along with two bystanders, apparently in an airstrike in the same area, as he was filming Israeli tank movements.

Other cameramen who rushed to the scene said they saw the Reuters jeep on fire, and Shana's body lying next to it. They said Shana s jeep was marked "press" and that the cameraman was wearing an identifying flak jacket.

Source : PTI