Rafah Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip ? Moving deep inside this shantytown on the Egyptian border, Israeli troops hunted for weapons-smuggling tunnels and searched houses Friday. It was the biggest army raid in nearly six months in the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli army soldier aims a night-vision rifle from atop an armored personnel carrier during an army operation in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces trying to demolish Palestinian weapons-smuggling tunnels fought gunmen for hours Friday in the largest army raid in half a year in Rafah, a frequent battlefield.

Gun battles erupted between soldiers and Palestinian gunmen during the raid in the Rafah refugee camp. Seven Palestinians were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and 62 were wounded. One Israeli soldier was lightly wounded.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat attended Friday prayers at his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah. He seemed stronger after what aides said was a bout of stomach flu, and sat cross-legged, attentive and smiling. Arafat confidants have denied rumors he was suffering from a serious illness.

Some news reports said Arafat had suffered a mild heart attack or had stomach cancer and needed to undergo surgery; Arafat himself was said to be fearful he might have been poisoned. All those reports were false, according to his doctors and aides.

Israel’s raid of Rafah, a frequent battlefield, began around midnight Thursday and could last several days, military sources said. That means the action could signal a new approach to dealing with the camps. In the past, Israeli troops would conduct only rapid raids into the highly dangerous refugee camps and then leave quickly to try to minimize the risk of casualties.

The raid was part of stepped-up military activity after last weekend’s suicide bombing that killed 20 Israelis in a restaurant in the port city of Haifa. On Sunday, Israel struck what it said was a Palestinian militant training camp inside Syria.