Israeli government scrambling to come up with new route for key stretch of wall

JERUSALEM — Israeli army planners were scrambling to reroute a key section of the West Bank separation barrier Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled that the original path would have caused too much hardship for Palestinians and violated international law.

In Gaza, witnesses said Israeli forces fired two missiles near the town of Beit Hanoun, scene of an offensive aimed at stopping Palestinian rocket attacks. The airstrikes wounded several people, but none of the injuries was believed to be life-threatening.

The army said it fired at least one missile at a group of militants who had planted explosives near Israeli troops. Witnesses confirmed that militants were operating in the area.

The landmark court ruling meant more trouble for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians — his ambitious plan to complete the West Bank barrier and withdraw from the Gaza Strip by 2005.

The plan also has been complicated by recent violence in Gaza, including a deadly Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli border town earlier this week.

Israeli tanks battled Palestinian gunmen Thursday in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, and local hospital officials said a 9-year-old boy was killed by Israeli gunfire.

The army said militants fired grenades and missiles at its forces. It had no information on the dead boy.

The Rafah camp was the scene of a large-scale offensive last month in which 40 Palestinians died. Israel accuses militants of smuggling weapons across the adjacent Egyptian border through underground tunnels.

An Israeli offensive in northern Gaza also continued, as troops searched for militants and uprooted olive trees that the army says are used for cover for rocket attacks. Seven Palestinians were reported wounded.

Also Thursday, an Israeli official said the government turned over a list of unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts to the United States.

But U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Patin said the action fell short of American demands to dismantle the outposts, and an Israeli newspaper said Israel was moving to legalize some of the enclaves. Patin urged Israel to fulfill its commitments.

Palestinians view the outposts as the seeds of future settlements, which they say encroach on land where they hope to establish an independent state.