Jebaliya Refugee Camp, G.S. ? Israeli troops and aircraft hit hard at Palestinian militants Saturday, killing at least 11 in a massive Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip’s largest refugee camp, as masked Hamas gunmen vowed more rocket attacks on Israeli towns.

About 2,000 soldiers have taken control of a 5-mile-deep chunk of northern Gaza to counter militants firing homemade rockets into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said late Saturday that the army’s mission was to stop the rocket fire “completely.” He told Israel Radio, “This operation will continue as long as necessary.”

Two Palestinians were killed and three others wounded early today in an Israeli airstrike in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, residents and hospital officials said. The violent Islamic Jihad group identified the two dead as its members.

Witnesses and security officials said a missile apparently was fired from a pilotless Israeli aircraft hovering overhead. The military had no immediate comment.

More than 50 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed during the offensive, launched after a Hamas rocket killed two Israeli preschoolers Wednesday near Gaza.

Israeli tanks and bulldozers also opened a new front today, moving from a Jewish settlement in southern Gaza into the Khan Younis refugee camp, residents said, as Sharon pledged to halt mortar fire at the settlements as well.

The fighting again plunged the encircled, poverty-stricken Gaza Strip into scenes of anguish. Mothers wept over their children’s corpses, tank fire ripped through groups of militants and bystanders, stone-throwing youngsters faced off against well-armed Israeli troops and tires burned in the streets to confuse Israeli spy drones.

The offensive has brought Israeli troops into Jebaliya — the largest Palestinian refugee camp and one of the most crowded places in the world, with 106,000 people in half a square mile. Palestinian gunmen dug in, fortifying positions in Jebaliya and two other nearby towns also commandeered by Israel.

Palestinians gather as firefighters work to extinguish a building fire after an Israeli missile strike hit a car and killed two Hamas members in eastern Gaza City. The airstrike Saturday killed Mehdi Mushtaha and Khaled Amreet, both members Hamas' military wing, as they traveled by car in Gaza City, sources said. Four bystanders were also wounded in the attack.

Late Saturday, Israeli forces pulled back briefly from the eastern edge of the Jebaliya camp, leaving behind a trail of destruction. To craft a new road into the camp, the Israelis leveled rows of houses and flattened a farm. U.N. officials said dozens were left homeless.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat denounced the Israeli offensive as a “monstrous, criminal, inhumane attack,” but his prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, warned against the consequences of firing missiles into Israel.