GAZA, March 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The Israeli forces pulled out from thecentral Gaza Strip after killing 14 Palestinians in a military raidon two refugee camps on Sunday.

    The operation started at around 3 a.m. (0100 GMT) when dozens ofIsraeli tanks and armored vehicles swept into the refugee camps of Nuseirat and al-Bureij from two directions.

    Palestinian security sources said that the tanks came from the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the central Gaza Strip and Nitzarim south of Gaza City, adding that as soon as they reached the two camps, gunbattles erupted between Palestinian militants andIsraeli soldiers.

    The soldiers used heavy ammunition and tanks shells during the fire exchange, and Palestinian militants used light rifles and roadside bombs in preventing the Israeli army from incurring into the area, they said.

    Residents said that they saw at least 20 tanks and armored vehicles, adding that soldiers took the roofs of several buildings where snipers opened fire at any moving targets in the area.

    Medics in the central Gaza Strip hospitals of Al Aqsa and Shiffa said that 14 Palestinians were killed and more than 60 others were injured, five of them critically.

    Ibrahim Al Musadar, chief of emergency unit at Al Aqsa Hospital said that a boy aged seven and another aged 14 were among those being killed and two of the injured were in clinical death.

    No injuries were reported among the Israeli soldiers. Yet witnesses said that Palestinian militants destroyed two Israeli armored vehicles by roadside bombs, and shot an Israeli sniper who was on the top roof of one of the buildings at Nuseirat refugee camp.

    The reason of the thrust was not known.

    However, some witnesses said that the house of Mohamed Abu Awad,a Palestinian who was killed in an attack he carried into the Gaza Strip, was the target of the raid. Enditem