RAFAH, Gaza Strip (PC) - It was the same gruesome site - dead and wounded scattered all about an impoverished neighborhood in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah. And as always, the majority of the victims were women and children.

The Israeli government however maintains its accusation that “Palestinian terrorists” are responsible.

Palestinians however has no illusions about who is responsible. Several Israeli tanks advanced, in a somewhat routine mission in the Palestinian refugee camp, close to the border with Egypt. It was unclear whether Israeli forces were carrying out another “scare tactic” or on the look for armed Palestinian fighters.

Similar to the Israeli bombing of Rafah all last week, which resulted in the death of six Palestinians, mostly children, including a four-year-old child crushed to death when Israeli sappers detonated a nearby house, residential homes were also bombed.

Three tanks shells, Palestinian sources report, exploded inside people’s homes, causing extensive damage.

Eight bodies have already been pulled out from under the debris, and 40 wounded were taken to nearby clinics. Medical sources say that most of the victims were children and women: a four-year-old girl and a 12-year-old child, and two elderly women, were among the dead.

The killing came only one day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held talks in Washington with US President George W. Bush, who allegedly asked Sharon to curb the alarming number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli forces.

Bush, analysts say is concerned that too many Palestinian deaths would harm the already battered US image in the Arab world ahead of yet a new military venture against an Arab country, Iraq.

Medical source in Rafah also informed Agency France Press (AFP) that the injured included a young girl in critical condition and a dozen people listed as seriously hurt.

The Israeli tanks fired several shells at the houses and blasted them with heavy machine-gun fire, eyewitnesses say.

But Israel allege that the attack on Rafah, similar to most of its attacks was in self-defense.

"This is another case of Palestinian terrorists using the civilian population to hide behind and conduct terrorist activity," Israeli army spokeswoman Captain Sharon Feingold told reporters.

Israel often say that Palestinians are using that border area to smuggle weapons from Egypt. Palestinians charge that resorting to armed struggle is their last option to defend themselves against the occupation army, considering that the international community refuses to provide any meaningful mechanism to protect their lives or the lives of their families.

Sharon however, who often describe such incidents as “successful operations” and offers his congratulations to the Israeli army, is rather busy with his own achievements. In Washington, Sharon received a “tacit nod” from Bush to respond to any possible Iraqi missile strike should Baghdad attack Israel during an anticipated US war against Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross estimate the number of Palestinians activists imprisoned in Israeli jails at 7,000, a number that is steadily increasing, almost everyday.