A senior Hamas commander called CNN Thursday afternoon to say his group was ready to stop the Qassam rocket attacks if Israeli troops would pull out of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahya and Jabalya.

But Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he was ordering a major operation to stop the rocket attacks, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said he had scheduled a meeting of his full cabinet for Thursday night where Mofaz would present his plan for final approval.

At least 25 Palestinians and three Israelis were killed in fighting in the areas of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahya and Jabalya in northern Gaza, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.

In one incident on Thursday, 10 Palestinians were killed and 20 others were wounded, many of them critically, when a crowd of militants mixed with civilians was hit near a marketplace in Jabalya by an Israeli tank shell, Palestinian security officials said. They said women and children were among the wounded.

Israeli military sources said initially a tank had fired at militants trying to lay explosives at the marketplace.

Shortly after, they said, militants fired an anti-tank missile at troops from the same area. An Israeli tank then fired a tank shell at the source of the fire, the military sources said.

Palestinian sources said Israeli troops had destroyed 15 houses in the Jabalya refugee camp.

Among the 25 Palestinians killed in the northern Gaza fighting, Palestinian sources said, were at least six fighters belonging to the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the radical group Hamas. They said two civilians -- a 65-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy -- were also among the dead. Information on the other deaths was scanty or unavailable.

As the day began, an Israeli soldier and two Palestinian militants were killed early Thursday in an exchange of gunfire near the Jabalya refugee camp, Israeli Army and Palestinian security sources said.

In another deadly encounter, two Israelis were killed in a shooting attack on a jogger near the Jewish settlement of Eley Sinai, Israeli military sources said.

According to Israeli sources, Palestinian militants opened fire on an Israeli woman jogging in the settlement, killing her. An Israeli army medic was killed when he attempted to go to the aid of the woman.

Palestinian security sources said two Palestinian gunmen were killed in a subsequent firefight.

The Israeli military launched multiple helicopter attacks late Wednesday on Palestinian militants in northern Gaza, including targeting offices that Israel said housed a group that funds terror attacks.

At least two Palestinians were killed in the various strikes Wednesday, Palestinian security sources said.

The military operations came hours after a Qassam rocket fired from northern Gaza hit a street between two buildings in Sderot, an Israeli town approximately one mile from the Gaza border.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/09/30/mideast.violence/index.html