Israel drew US condemnation and Palestinian allegations of massacre after killing 14 Palestinians in a raid on suspected militants in the Gaza Strip. The US 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.Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer issued a statement saying most of those killed in Monday’s armour, infantry and air operation ‘‘to stop terrorist attacks’’ were gunmen who fired at Israeli forces.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.‘‘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.Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon travels to Washington next week and is expected to hear an appeal from President George W. Bush to avoid action that could upset a US 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 on 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 officials said was Abu Lehiya’s kidnapping by 10 Hamas men, who then killed him. Hamas officials said the police chief was killed in a private vendetta. (Reuters)
