GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? Dozens of Israeli tanks entered the Rafah refugee camp before dawn today, just days after another incursion into the Gaza site left eight dead and hundreds homeless.

On Monday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat delivered yet another blow to his new premier, appointing an acting security chief over interim Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia’s opposition.

Qureia, in office about a week, already has threatened to resign several times because of disputes with Arafat. The latest threat came Sunday, when Qureia said he would not be part of the new government set to form in about three weeks.

Qureia’s success or failure in office could decide the fate of stalled negotiations with Israel over a U.S.-backed peace plan intended to end three years of violence and create a Palestinian state by 2005.

Israeli military sources said today’s operation in the Rafah refugee camp was a continuation of a three-day mission that began Friday, aimed at clearing away tunnels used by Palestinians to smuggle weapons from Egypt. There were no immediate reports of casualties early today.

Palestinian witnesses said two columns of armored vehicles entered the Rafah camp from two directions before 4 a.m., heading for a different section of the camp from the one targeted earlier.

The first raid, the biggest in Gaza in six months, was accompanied by heavy fighting between soldiers and Palestinian gunmen. Eight Palestinians, including two children, were killed, and dozens were wounded.

U.N. officials reported that more than 1,200 Palestinians were left homeless after the first operation.

Also Monday, former Israeli peace negotiators and Palestinian officials said they agreed on an unofficial peace deal that could eventually form the basis of official negotiations.

Palestinian children stand in the rubble of their family home in the Yebena neighborhood of the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. Israel's three-day military operation in the refugee camp left 1,240 Palestinians homeless, U.N. officials said Monday.

The unofficial deal would give Palestinians a state in 98 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza. They also would receive land in Israel’s Negev Desert to compensate for the 2 percent kept in the West Bank by Israel.