HIGHLIGHTS: U.N. Secretary General, Annan, Describes Massacre as Being Void of any Moral or Legal Justification||Washington Gently Asks Israel to Investigate & Kindly Take Steps to Prevent Recurrence of 'Tragic Incidents Such as These'||In another Shameless Response, a White House Spokesman Said 'Israel has a right to defend itself'||Five Palestinians Die in Inter-Palestinian Fighting Including Police Chief Colonel Rageh Abu Lehiya|| STORY: Israel drew U.S. condemnation and Palestinian allegations of massacre after killing 14 Palestinians in a raid on suspected Resistance activists in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer issued a statement claiming that most of those killed in Monday's armor, infantry and air operation "to stop terrorist attacks" were Resistance men who fired at Israeli forces.

The incursion into the town of Khan Younis raised tensions at a time when the United States has been trying to keep a lid on two years of Israeli-Palestinian violence as it pursues Arab support for possible war on Iraq.

Palestinian hospital officials, who said 80 people were wounded, identified the dead as civilians, including 10 people killed by a missile fired from a helicopter into a crowd that had gathered near a mosque.

It was the highest civilian death toll in Gaza since July 23 when a bomb dropped by an Israeli plane killed 13 civilians as well as its target, Hamas's military commander.

"They made this massacre against our people," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said at the start of a meeting in his West Bank headquarters with Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief.

Solana is in the region pushing an initiative on behalf of an international "quartet" of Middle East peace brokers. The United Nations, part of the "quartet," said the civilian deaths in the Gaza attack could escalate the Middle East conflict.

"Such actions have no legal or moral justification," a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

HAMAS VOWS REVENGE

The Resistance Islamic group has vowed to avenge the Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip massacre.

The State Department said the United States was "deeply troubled" by the operation in a crowded civilian area.

"We call on the Israeli military to investigate the circumstances surrounding these deaths and we expect immediate steps to be taken to prevent the recurrence of tragic incidents such as these," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

In a more muted response, Sean McCormack, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said: "Israel has a right to defend itself.

"Israel should, however, consider carefully the consequences of its actions -- that includes the need to take every measure to prevent the loss of innocent life in fighting terror."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon travels to Washington next week for his seventh White House visit since taking office.

He is widely expected to hear an appeal from President Bush to avoid action that could upset a U.S. war effort against Iraq and withhold Israeli retaliation if Baghdad attacks Israel with missiles as it did in the 1991 Gulf war.

In separate fighting in the Gaza Strip Monday, at least five people, including Palestinian riot police chief Colonel Rageh Abu Lehiya, were killed in violence between Hamas and Palestinian security forces.

The bloodshed began with what Palestinian security officials said was Abu Lehiya's kidnapping by 10 Hamas men, who then killed him.

PRIVATE VENDETTA

Hamas officials said the police chief was killed in a private vendetta by the family of a man who was shot dead by police during a demonstration a year ago. The family are well-known Hamas supporters.

After Abu Lehiya was killed, two Hamas men were shot dead when Palestinian police stopped resistance activists for questioning.

Palestinian security forces surrounded the neighborhood where the police officer's suspected killer was believed to be holed up and clashes ensued in which another two Palestinians died. Their identities were not immediately known.

Mohammed Dahlan, a security adviser to Arafat, called on Hamas "to take a brave step and hand over" those involved in Abu Lehiya's killing.

PHOTO CAPTION

Relatives gather around the bodies of Palestinians slain during Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) October 7, 2002. Israel killed 14 Palestinians in a raid on suspected militants that drew Washington's condemnation and threatened to harm U.S. efforts to win Arab support for a war on Iraq. (Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuter