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Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Sunday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to escalate attacks on militants who fire rockets into southern Israel.
Palestinian hospital officials said all three dead in the Bureij refugee camp were civilians - a woman, an 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old youth. At least 25 people were wounded.
An anti-tank rocket fired by fighters also wounded several Israeli soldiers during the raid, which raised tensions before US President George W. Bush's visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank starting on Wednesday.
Olmert told his cabinet that Defence Minister Ehud Barak instructed security forces "to escalate Israel's actions" in the coastal territory after a rocket fired by militants last week reached the major Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Israeli ground forces moved into Bureij at dawn, according to the Israeli army and Palestinian officials.
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