Jerusalem ? Israelis formed a human chain stretching 55 miles from Gaza to Jerusalem to protest Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza Strip withdrawal plan, as violence left six Palestinian militants dead and five Israeli children wounded.

The children, housed at a community center, were injured when Palestinians fired mortars at the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim, according to rescue services and the military. The settlement is a frequent target of Palestinian rifle and mortar fire. The attack occurred as demonstrators were heading home.

Israeli helicopters targeted a house in Gaza City in two separate missile strikes Sunday, witnesses said. One bystander was slightly injured in the missile blasts, the witnesses said. The Israeli military had no comment.

Also, Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. Israel Army Radio said they were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, loosely linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.

It was the bloodiest clash in the West Bank in a month. On June 26, Israeli forces ambushed Palestinian militants holed up in a tunnel in Nablus, killing seven.

Organizers of the human chain said they expected up to 150,000 Israelis to take part, about the same number as participated in a pro-withdrawal demonstration in Tel Aviv two months ago. Turnout appeared to be near expectations, with few gaps in the chain.

Israel Army Radio quoted police officials as estimating 70,000 people actually took part. Israel TV’s Channel Two gave an estimate of 130,000.

The chain began at Nissanit, a settlement in northern Gaza, and stretched 55 miles along roads and highways to Jerusalem’s Western Wall. Hundreds of rented buses carried people to various points along the route, and bullhorns signaled demonstrators to join hands.

Palestinian medical workers wheel in a wounded youth to the treatment room of Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Israeli helicopters fired two missiles Sunday at a house in a crowded residential district of Gaza City, which has been the scene of heavy fighting. Palestinian security officials said the house was empty at the time of the strike.

“We came here to protest the program of expelling Jews from their land,” said Avraham Yitzhaki, 54, from the Gaza settlement of Ganei Tal.

Sharon announced in December that he planned to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements by the end of September 2005. The plan drew such fierce opposition from hard-liners that he fired two critics in his own Cabinet, forcing him to search for a new governing coalition.

The decision also infuriated Jewish settlers who saw Sharon as their champion through decades of political fighting over building and expanding settlements in territories seized from Jordan, Egypt and Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.

“The government of Israel should not be displacing its own people,” said Adina Giventer, who came to demonstrate from Haifa in northern Israel.

Many Israelis say the settlements reinforce Israel’s claim to lands that are the birthright of the Jewish people. About 240,000 Jews live among 3.5 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israelis, some holding flags, form a human chain on a road near the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat. From Gaza City to Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Israelis linked hands Sunday in a massive protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to dismantle the Jewish settlements and withdraw the army from the Gaza Strip.

Other Israelis believe relinquishing the settlements is a precondition for reaching peace with the Palestinians. Polls show a majority in favor of Sharon’s plan to abandon the Gaza Strip, which has less historical significance than the West Bank.