Israeli occupation forces killed two Palestinians and demolished homes in a tank and helicopter gunship raid in the Gaza Strip  on Sunday which the occupation army said was aimed at curbing attacks on occupation troops and Jewish settlements. The occupation army carried out the operation in and around the town and refugee camp at Khan Younis hours before ministers in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon 's new hawkish cabinet, sworn in last week, took up their posts.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, replacing Benjamin Netanyahu , now finance minister, pledged in remarks to reporters "to take advantage of every opportunity for peace with the Palestinians."

Palestinians have voiced concern that Sharon's cabinet, which includes opponents of a Palestinian state, may use tougher tactics to try to quell a 29-month-old uprising despite a U.S. pledge to press for Middle East peace after any war with Iraq .

Backed by helicopter gunships, tanks rumbled into Khan Younis before dawn, drawing fire from Palestinian resistance men.

Palestinian witnesses said a 23-year-old who appeared to be a resistance men was killed, a 50-year-old man was found shot to death in his apartment and at least 25 other Palestinians were wounded. The occupation army said two occupation soldiers were hurt.

The witnesses said the occupation army blew up or bulldozed 10 houses and destroyed an eight-story building, making some 100 people homeless.

An Israeli occupation army field commander said "a number of abandoned structures" that resistance men had used for shelter during recent attacks on occupation troops and settlements were demolished.

EXPLOITING PREOCCUPATION WITH IRAQ

Citing the killing of a occupation soldier by a Palestinian sniper in the area on February 23, the officer said: "The aim was to change the infrastructure, to stop the sniper fire into our bases and settlements."

Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat called the raid "a prelude to reoccupy all of the Gaza Strip, exploiting the world's preoccupation with the Iraqi crisis."

The occupation army stepped up operations in the Gaza Strip last month after a bomb planted by the resistance Islamic group Hamas killed four Israeli tank crewmen.

Israel responded to that attack and Hamas's launching of rockets at a southern Israeli town with raids into Gaza in which some 40 Palestinians, many of them resistance men, were killed.

At least 1,877 Palestinians and 706 Israelis have been killed since the uprising for statehood erupted in September 2000 erupted after peace talks broke down.


PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians try to climb the rubble of a building destroyed by the Israeli occupation army in the Khan Younis refugee camp, March 2, 2003. Israeli tanks and occupation troops rolled into the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing two Palestinians, injuring more than 20 in gunbattles and demolishing 10 homes. (Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuter