Israel Raids Gaza City, Killing 9

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli troops backed by dozens of tanks raided Gaza City on Tuesday to destroy several weapons workshops, killing nine Palestinians in gun battles in two neighborhoods of the Palestinians' largest city.

The incursion — the deepest into Gaza City in two years of fighting — came amid growing international criticism of Israel's 6-day-old siege of Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites)'s compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council demanded that Israel withdraw troops from Palestinian areas and the European Union ( news - web sites) told Arafat it was trying to get Israel to ease his isolation. Pope John Paul ( news - web sites) II also demanded an end to the blockade.

Israel assaulted and largely demolished Arafat's headquarters last week, in response to a Tel Aviv bus bombing that killed six people. On Tuesday, land phone lines to Arafat's compounds appeared to be out of order, meaning Arafat's only link to the outside world were a few mobile phones. Arafat and about 200 aides and security officials are confined to a few rooms in a wing of his office building.

The embattled Arafat said in a statement Tuesday that he welcomed the U.N. Security Council resolution, and urged the world to pressure Israel to implement it.

Despite the international outcry, Israeli troops backed by about 60 armored vehicles raided Gaza City early Tuesday.

Soldiers destroyed 13 workshops where the army said crude rockets were being made, and blew up the family house of a Hamas militiaman who killed five Israeli teenagers in a shooting rampage in a Jewish settlement in Gaza earlier this year.