Gaza: IDF raid kills 11 Palestinians

        A Palestinian sniper killed an Ecuadorian volunteer at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha near the Gaza Strip early on Tuesday, hours after Israel Defense Forces troops killed at least 11 Palestinians in ground and air raids on Gaza City. One of of the fatalities in the IDF operation was reported to be the son of Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, the last surviving founder of the Islamist group. Hamas's armed wing later claimed responsibility for killing the kibbutz volunteer. The 11 Palestinians were killed when IDF soldiers backed by tanks and helicopters entered the eastern Gaza City neighborhoods of Sejaiyeh and Zaitoun, trading fire with gunmen. Later in the fighting, a Palestinian sniper fired from the border area into Israel, killing the 20-year-old volunteer from Quito, Ecuador, who was working in a kibbutz field near the kibbutz border fence, Ein Hashlosha's security chief said. The violence demonstrated an appreciable escalation of fighting surrounding the Gaza Strip, where daily Qassam rocket attacks have been countered largely by Israeli air strikes against rocket crews and commanders of armed groups. Of the 11 Palestinians killed, at least eight were members of armed groups, officials said. One of the other fatalities was an elderly man, they said. Another 17 Palestinians were wounded, three of them critically, in the raid in Gaza City on Tuesday. Husam Zahar, 24, son of the Hamas leader, was taking part in the fighting when killed, residents said. He was Zahar's second son to die in Israeli-Palestinian violence.(12,44)