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Report: Israeli Gaza raids kill 10

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GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israeli military strikes have killed 10 Palestinians, including seven in northern Gaza and three in southern Gaza, Palestinian security sources say.

The Israeli attacks Wednesday came in an airstrike and tank shelling, the Palestinian sources said. Among the dead were members of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied conducting an airstrike in Gaza, but said its forces did fire on a militant in eastern Gaza City, killing him.

An IDF representative acknowledged a ground incursion by Israeli forces into the northern Gaza community of Shaja'iya, east of Gaza City, where two Palestinians died in the fighting.

Israeli and Palestinian sources reported a second Israeli incursion in southern Gaza, near Khan Yunis. According to Palestinian security sources, three Palestinians were killed.

An Israeli military spokesman said two soldiers were lightly wounded in southern Gaza when militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank. Israeli forces returned fire.

From PM to peace envoy

Meanwhile, the Bush administration expects Western powers to name Tony Blair as their Middle East envoy soon after he steps down as British prime minister on Wednesday, diplomats say. (Full story)

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, Blair's partner in steering the Northern Ireland peace process for the past decade, told Irish state radio on Wednesday that Blair had told him he had already agreed to the role.

Blair will represent the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

Blair's appointment was delayed on Tuesday when Russia balked at giving a green light to the appointment during a meeting of Quartet representatives in Jerusalem.

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