Groups of women defied the Israeli forces to run to the mosque
A siege at a mosque in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun has ended after Israeli forces entered the compound and found no-one there, Israel's army says.
An Israeli military spokesman told the BBC they believe the dozen Palestinian gunmen escaped by mingling with a crowd of women who had formed a human shield.
The women went to the mosque after an appeal on Hamas radio. Two were reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire.
Israel entered Beit Hanoun on Wednesday to stop rocket attacks, it said.
A tense stand-off developed after Israeli forces surrounded the mosque, where Palestinian gunmen had taken refuge along with about 60 others.
Witnesses said bulldozers demolished a wall as the Israelis tried to force those inside to surrender and there were exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the gunmen.
However, following an appeal on Hamas radio, over 100 women approached the compound in groups.
"We risked our lives to free our sons," Um Mohammed, a woman in her 40s, told the AFP news agency afterwards.
"Hundreds of us entered the mosque and surrounded the resistance fighters to protect them," 21-year-old Nidaa al-Radih said.
With the gunmen shielded within their midst the women ran to an area north-west of the town which is clear of Israeli troops.
There have been reports that the Israeli soldiers fired on the groups of women. Two women are reported to have been killed.
Hamas radio has since reported that all of the militants in the mosque had escaped and were uninjured.
And how to Muslims act toward each other?
Darfur militias 'kill children'
The Janjaweed are accused of ethnic cleansing
Militias backing Sudan's government have killed at least 63 people in attacks in Darfur in the past week, African peacekeepers say.
At least 27 of the victims are thought to be children under the age of 12.
The attacks were carried on camps for the displaced in the rebel stronghold of Jebel Moun, in West Darfur.
The government says it is disarming the Janjaweed militia but a BBC correspondent in Sudan says all the evidence points to the exact opposite.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Sudanese government to restrain the militia's following the attacks.
Militia wearing government uniforms, on camels and horseback, swept into the camps in Jebel Moun on 29 October.
The African Union (AU) investigation team has just returned from the area to make its report.
So, are Jews more moral than Muslim or is it a matter for post-modern destructivist narrative analysis?
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