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"In parallel, Israel will continue to maintain the ceasefire and work with the Palestinian Authority so that immediate steps are taken to halt the Qassam firings."

The statement appeared to suggest no major offensive in the immediate future.

The statement was issued after consultations between Ehud Olmert and security chiefs.

A rocket was fired from Gaza shortly after the statement was released, the Israeli military said, without providing further details.

Israel Radio said the projectile landed in an open field in the Sderot area, causing no injuries or damage. No armed group immediately claimed responsibility.

Public criticism

Olmert has come under growing public criticism for failing to retaliate for more than 60 rockets fired by fighters in the Gaza Strip since a November 26 truce began, while also under US and European pressure to keep the ceasefire.

A 14-year-old boy was in a critical condition and another, also 14, was seriously wounded by the rocket that on Tuesday slammed into a street near a house in the town of Sderot, a frequent target.

Two Israeli teenagers were injured on
Tuesday after a rocket attack in Sderot [EPA]

Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed group, claimed its forces had fired the rocket, and called it retaliation for Israel's continued military raids on its hideouts in the occupied West Bank.

The truce had halted Israeli-Palestinian fighting in and near the Gaza Strip, but Israel has continued raids it says are to prevent attacks from being launched from the West Bank.

Israel has killed 15 Palestinians since the ceasefire began, all but one in the West Bank. About half were armed men.

In other news, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday that Israeli forces detained overnight 22 Palestinians from various West Bank areas.

Activists of different factions were among those arrested in the operation which focused on areas in the northern West Bank.

Nawaf Hawatmeh, general secretary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has told Al Jazeera that Hamas officials met Israeli officials in London and prepared what he called the "Geneva Hamas document".

Hamas has denied that any such meeting took place.

In an interview broadcast on Wednesday, Hawatmeh said Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, had given the document to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

The DFLP is a Damascus-based Palestinian group which advocates a tough line in confronting the Israeli occupation.

However, Hawatmeh's claim was challenged by Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon. In an interview aired by Al Jazeera on Thursday, he denied that any meeting between Hamas and Israeli officials in London had taken place.

Abbas said recently that Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, had welcomed the idea of an unofficial line of communication between Palestinians and Israelis.

Arms for Abbas

In another development, Israeli officials said on Thursday that Egypt has sent a large shipment of weapons to the Gaza Strip to shore up Abbas.

They said the shipment of 2,000 automatic rifles and ammunition was approved by Israel and escorted through its territory by police on Wednesday. The officials were speaking on condition of anonymity because the delivery had not been officially confirmed by Israel, the Palestinians or Egypt.

The four lorries then crossed into the Gaza Strip through the Karni checkpoint, the officials said.

The weapons are meant to strengthen Palestinian security services affiliated with Abbas's Fatah, currently engaged in a violent struggle for power with Hamas, which controls the Palestinian parliament and cabinet.

According to the daily Haaretz, the details of the shipment were settled by Olmert and Abbas at their first official meeting, held in Jerusalem on Saturday night.

However, a spokesman for Abbas denied that any weapons had been transferred. "The talk about the president's security services receiving arms is unfounded and not true at all," Nabil Abu Rdainah said.
Miri Eisin, Olmert's spokeswoman, declined to comment, as did the Israeli defence ministry.

At the meeting on Saturday, Olmert also pledged $100m in withheld tax revenues to the Palestinian president, bypassing the Hamas-led government.

Israeli officials have said Washington has been instrumental in helping to organise a number of past shipments of guns and ammunition to Abbas's presidential guard from Egypt and Jordan.

The Bush administration is seeking congressional support to provide up to $100m to bolster the force and expand Abbas's control over strategic border crossings.

Civilians often pay the price in so-called targeted killings of activists [EPA]

From January to December 2006, the Israeli military killed 655 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem - a huge rise on last year.

The defining moment was the capture of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, on June 26, after which the number of Palestinian civilians killed increased greatly.

Sarit Michaeli, communications director of B'Tselem, said: "Following the kidnapping of Corporal Shalit, Israel staged several operations inside Gaza where Israeli forces killed 405 Palestinians over six months."

Over the same period, violations against Israeli civilians dropped considerably.

One issue relating to the rise in the number of Palestinians killed has been the increased Israeli military activity against Qassam rockets fired from the Palestinian territories.

"Of the number of Palestinians killed during 2006, over half weren't participating in any hostile activity at all," Michaeli said.

"The number of Palestinian deaths, in total, went up by over three times."

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Last year, the number of Palestinians killed was 197 throughout the territories.

Israeli rocket fire

"Most Palestinians were killed during military operations, of which Israeli military fire, attempting to hit Qassam rocket launchers in the territories, ends up killing civilians," Michaeli said.

Production of Qassam rockets began in September 2001, after the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada.

Michaeli also said: "There have been a couple of concrete cases where Israel attempted to assassinate Palestinian leaders, but ended up killing civilians.

"When a rocket hits an area, civilians naturally rush in to help the victims of the first missile, but end up dead from the second missile strike."

Disproportionate force

In the West bank, B'Tselem documents that many Palestinians have been killed by disproportionate force.

"Where Israeli soldiers are saying they're undertaking targeted killings, they are actually using lethal force against non-combatants," Michaeli said.

Israeli offensives increased in June [EPA]
"Israeli soldiers have killed people that present no danger to them. A 28-year-old labourer in the West Bank was shot dead while working his trade, for example.

"In Nablus, a group of children were throwing stones at Israeli tanks, and a group of soldiers shot directly at them. These are not primarily combat situations."

Attacks against non-combatants represent a clear contravention of international humanitarian law, he said.

Decline in Israeli deaths

The number of Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians so far this year was 17. Last year the number was 41.

"This has more than halved for a number of reasons," Michaeli said.

Factors included "disengagement from Gaza in August, the evacuation of settlers, the separation barrier, and the fact that that Israelis have developed a greater capacity for thwarting suicide attacks", he said.

Air strike phenomenon

A new phenomenon in Gaza this year was the demolition of homes from the air. About 80 homes were demolished using this method.

Israel demolished 292 houses during military operations in the territories, 279 of which were in the Gaza Strip. These were home to 1,769 people.

"Of the number of Palestinians killed during 2006, over half weren't participating in any hostile activity at all"

Sarit Michaeli
According to a number of sources, a 15- to 30-minute warning is given by telephone before homes are demolished by air-to-ground rocket strikes.

"Israel tries to justify these attacks by saying that these houses are military targets," Michaeli said. "That there are weapons there, or attacks being planned there.

"But concrete evidence isn't given due to fears of compromising intelligence."

As of last month, Israel held 9,075 Palestinians, including 345 minors, in custody. Of these, 738 (22 minors) were held in administrative detention without trial and without knowing the charges against them.

A Hamas spokesman has claimed progress is being made in a deal to free a captured Israeli soldier in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

On Sunday, Abu Obedia, a Hamas spokesman, was reported to have said on Israeli public radio that there had been "a breakthrough".

Both sides, however, are clear that nothing has been finalised.

Obedia said: "There is an important breakthrough in contacts for the release of the captured soldier Gilad Shalit. If these contacts continue in the current direction, the exchange of prisoners could happen very soon."

But Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, has said talk of a deal is premature and Miri Eisin, the Israeli spokeswoman, declined to comment, saying: "We never give out information on this sensitive issue".

Erakat said: "According to my information, it's too early to talk about a deal at the moment."

Cross-border raid

Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, was captured by Hamas fighters in a cross-border raid on June 25.

Several Israeli raids on Gaza failed to recover the soldier and Israel has refused to discuss other outstanding issues with the Palestinians with Shalit still in captivity.

"According to my information, it's too early to talk about a deal at the moment"

Saeb Erekat,
Palestinian negotiator
Ahmed Abul Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, has said a prisoner exchange would be discussed at a Red Sea summit between Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, to be held later this week.

Egypt is expected to attempt to broker the release of Shalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, particularly women and children.

Abul Gheit was quoted by the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper as saying: "The deal to exchange Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is on the agenda for the Mubarak-Olmert meeting on Thursday in Sharm el-Sheikh."

Israeli media said in the first stage of a prisoner exchange, Hamas would provide a video recording showing that Shalit is alive and Israel would then free a small number of prisoners.

Then, according to the reports, Israel would release 450 prisoners in exchange for the soldier, who would be handed over to Egyptian officials and transferred to Israel.

Hamas insistence

A sticking point in the negotiations is expected to be the reported insistence by Hamas on picking the prisoners to be freed, among about 8,000 held by Israel.

Some media reports said there would be a third phase in which Israel would release additional prisoners.

In the six months since Shalit's capture there have been numerous claims of progress and breakthroughs in contacts towarsd a prisoner exchange, but none have actually resulted in an exchange of prisoners.

Palestinians threw stones at Israeli bulldozers and military vehicles as Israel carried out what it called a "routine arrest operation". Israel said it detained four people in Ramallah and another in a separate incursion in Bethlehem.

A senior leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said the operation was aimed at capturing one of its members.

Pictures from Al Jazeera showed ambulances carrying away injured people away from the scene.

Two people were reportedly killed and at least 11 injured during the Ramallah operation.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator and an aide to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, condemned the incursion.

"I believe such an incursion will only harm relations between the two sides," he told Al Jazeera.

The West Bank operation came only hours before a meeting between Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and Hosni Mubarek, the Egyptian president, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The two leaders were expected to discuss ways to restart Middle East peace talks and how to free an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian fighters.

Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip
in late November, but military incursions have continued in the West Bank.

During the raid in Ramallah, bulldozers and armoured personnel
carriers were seen driving through the central Manara Square, clearing cars out of the way.

The army fired smoke grenades, and at one point, an Israeli helicopter
fired, witnesses said. The Israeli army confirmed the helicopter fire, which it says was as a deterrent and in open areas.

Two Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, Palestinian ambulance workers have said.

The Israeli army said that its soldiers opened fire in the early hours of Monday morning after they saw two armed men approaching the fence that divides Israel from Palestinian-ruled Gaza.

"A unit operating near the border, in an area adjacent to the northern Gaza Strip, spotted two suspects who were crawling toward the security barrier with an explosive device," an Israeli spokesman said.

"The soldiers opened fire in their direction causing the device to explode. The two men are probably dead."

Ambulance workers recover bodies

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Palestinian ambulance workers said they recovered two bodies from the scene.

The Popular Resistance Committee has identified the two men as members of its group and said in a statement they had embarked on a "mission" against Israel.

Israel and several armed Palestinian groups declared a Gaza ceasefire in November.

The truce that ended a substained Israeli military offensive against Palestinian fighters in the territory.

Some militant factions have kept up sporadic cross-border rocket attacks on Israeli cities despite the truce.

Magadla says he will promote co-existence between Arabs and Jews [AFP]
The Israeli parliament has approved the appointment of the country's first Arab Muslim cabinet minister, Galeb Magadla, who joins the government as minister without portfolio.

His nomination was approved on Monday by 59 votes in favour to 23 against, and was then sworn in, a parliament spokesman said.

Two MPs from the coalition partners, the extreme right Yisrael Beitenu party, voted against his appointment.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's strategic affairs minister and Yisrael Beitenu leader, was the only cabinet minister to vote against Magadla's appointment in a separate government ballot on Sunday.

'Promoting dialogue'

Magadla, a long-time union leader from the centre-left Labour party, has said his appointment is a historic step forward for relations between Jews and the minority Arab and Muslim communities in Israel.

Magadla told the Associated Press that his goals as a cabinet minister would be "promoting co-existence between the two peoples inside the state, and promoting dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis toward negotiations and political agreement".

Magadla and sources close to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, have said the two agreed he would be assigned a portfolio within weeks, possibly as head of a newly-created ministry of science, culture and sport.

Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Olmert said: "The present government is proud to be the first government to give executive representation to the Arab Muslim minority."

Israeli Arabs, who make up 20 percent of Israel's population, are descendants of the 160,000 or so Palestinians who stayed behind when the state of Israel was declared in 1948 and who did not join the refugee exodus.

Under-represented

"Progress for Israel's Arabs depends on changing the entire discriminatory approach of the government over the past 58 years, and not on the appointment of a minister or deputy minister"

Wasil Taha, Arab Balad party legislator
Arab-led parties account for 10 of the seats in the 120-member parliament.

However, the country has had only one Arab cabinet minister before: Salah Tarif, a Druze, who was appointed in 2001 and forced to resign nine months later under a cloud of corruption allegations.

This appointment was more contentious because Muslim and Christian Arabs, unlike the Druze, do not serve in the army.

Arabs have been slowly taking on a more visible role in Israeli society. There is an Arab supreme court justice, as well as several diplomats and senior civil servants.

But Arabs lag behind Israel's Jewish population in income, education and standard of living, and have long lacked representation in government commensurate with their numbers.

Wasil Taha, a legislator from the Arab Balad party, said there was little chance Magadla would be able to have a positive effect by working inside the government.

Taha said: "Progress for Israel's Arabs depends on changing the entire discriminatory approach of the government over the past 58 years, and not on the appointment of a minister or deputy minister."

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, says that he has agreed with George Bush, the US president, to shun a Palestinian unity government unless it accepts international demands on policy towards Israel.

Olmert made the remarks ahead of talks later in the day with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state.

"I spoke about this on Friday with the president of the United States, and I can tell you the Israeli and US positions are completely identical," Olmert said.

Rice is also due to see Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, before a tripartite summit in Jerusalem on Monday.

"A Palestinian government that does not accept the Quartet's conditions cannot receive recognition and there will not be co-operation with it," Olmert said in broadcast remarks.

Quartet demands

International mediators have called for the new Palestinian unity government, agreed between Abbas and representatives from the ruling Hamas party, to recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace accords.

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"A Palestinian government that does not accept the Quartet's conditions, cannot receive recognition and there will not be cooperation with it," Olmert said in broadcast remarks.

The unity deal that Abbas and Hamas leaders reached in Saudi Arabia this month fell short of meeting the conditions set by the Quartet, a group comprised of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Hamas, led by Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, has consistently refused to accept the status of Israel.

Rice had earlier been asked whether there was agreement to boycott a unity government.

She did not respond, although she said on Saturday such a decision had not yet been made.

"We are not going to render judgment [on a future unity government]," Rice's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said.

Pessimism

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said ordinary Palestinians remain pessimistic of tangible results from the tripartite talks.

"[Palestinians have] seen other summits come and go in the past without getting any closer to realising their aspirations"

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent
"It seems ordinary Palestinians aren't buying into the hopes being marketed by this trilateral summit," said Odeh.

"They've seen other summits come and go in the past without getting any closer to realising their aspirations... The sceptical outlook about the summit among Palestinians from all walks of life reflects their conviction that American foreign policy is aligned with the Israeli occupation," said Odeh.

While publicly supportive of Abbas, US officials are becoming impatient with the Palestinian president, whose staff said he would not budge from the deal struck with Hamas.

More than 90 Palestinians have been killed in recent factional warfare between Fatah and Hamas, and the unity agreement has put a check on violence between the two groups.

Both groups hope the unity deal can put a permanent end to internal violence and also persuade Western donors to restore direct aid to the Palestinian Authority that was cut off after Hamas came to power.

"The new government should show signs of maturity and responsibility"

Husky, Ottawa, Canada

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The most high profile hostage was Hamdan Assufi, a local Hamas leader whom Hamas has said it would take "measures" to free.

Fatah has not said whether it is holding him. Haniya told Reuters the upsurge in violence was "unfortunate".

An aide said the prime minister had spoken to Abbas on the telephone about the violence and dispatched Hani al-Qawasmi, the new interior minister, to meet Hamas and Fatah leaders in Gaza to "work intensively to put an end to the clashes immediately".

In further violence on Thursday, the house of a Hamas supporter in the northern Gaza Strip was set ablaze.

Hani al-Qawasmi, the interior minister, has
been told to work to end the violence [AFP]
Hamas blamed Fatah and sent members of its executive force to the scene, where a gun battle erupted.

One Fatah activist was injured, local residents and hospital officials said. In an apparent response, the furniture shop of a Fatah supporter was set on fire.

Relatives of a 45-year-old Gazan killed in a separate shooting incident also blamed Hamas executive force members for the shooting.

In response, members of the dead man's clan, one of Gaza's biggest and best armed, torched two executive force vehicles and abducted six members.

Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for the executive force, denied its involvement in the killing of the man and said the death was a result of a feud between two rival families.

In a separate incident in southern Gaza, an officer in a Fatah-dominated security force was shot by unknown attackers.

Nearly 18 months after Israel completed its disengagement from illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian farmers and contractors have begun agricultural and academic projects to rehabilitate the area.

During Israel's 38-year military presence in the Gaza Strip, the settlements had been cordoned off by security zones which insulated and protected the settlers but also prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing their farmland.

However, where the northern settlements once stood, uprooted fields are now being replanted with strawberries, potatoes and carrots, and wells and irrigation systems are being repaired.

Loai Ali Khadeer, a 20-year-old farmer from Beit Lahiya who has planted strawberries on 10 donums (one donum is the equivalent of 2,500sq m) of rented land, says: "It's better than before, a lot better.

"I hope it stays like this and the situation doesn't get worse. Now there are no problems, Arabs are planting on land next to Jews."

Khadeer is referring to fields that have been restored right up to the border with Israel.

In strawberry fields

Hamdi Fadeer is restoring a rented plot just beyond the former boundaries of Dugit settlement.

Like many other farmers Hamdi has taken out loans in order to afford renting the land and purchasing the irrigation pipes and plastic coverings he requires to maintain his strawberry fields.

Khadeer has planted strawberries on
rented land close to the Israeli border

But since the disengagement, times have been hard for the cash-strapped Gaza Strip.

Since the beginning of a financial embargo on the Palestinian Authority (PA) in March 2006, the government has not been able to pay its employees a single month's full wages.

Farmers like Fadeer are not on the PA's list of priorities.

Despite the financial shortcomings, however, Palestinians are eyeing foreign markets for their fruit and produce.

Abu Tamer Ghabn, director of the Agricultural Co-operative for Strawberry Farmers, said his organisation has been empowering farmers to attain new European quality standards and compete in foreign markets.

Europe is Gaza's main export market and the farmers cannot afford to lose it.

Building universities

Meanwhile, in the former southern Gaza settlement of Netzarim Palestinian universities are building new campuses for Gaza's quickly growing population.

When Israeli forces and settlers disengaged from this settlement some 18 months ago, they destroyed all the standing buildings, homes and warehouses.

But now, Palestinian volunteers have managed to finally clear the debris, paving room for renewed urban development.

In February the Islamic University started construction of a new branch there, which is expected to be completed in April 2008.

But there have been stumbling blocks in the rehabilitation of the former settlements, now under Palestinian control.

Slow progress

In the former settlement of Neve Dekalim, for example, the construction of al-Aqsa University's new campus has slowed since February 2006 due to a shortage of building materials.

Workers restoring old buildings that remained intact after Neve Dekalim was vacated have complained that exports and imports continue to be controlled by Israel.

Khaled Abu Sultan, one of the engineers on al-Aqsa campus project, says: "There was a hope that all would return to normal, but it remained as it was an occupation."

Al-Najjar, a former day labourer in Israel, says
"we are building our own country"

Shortly after Israel's disengagement, the government-owned Palestinian Economic Development Company (PEDC) was to train farmers, manage remaining settlement greenhouses and restore destroyed greenhouses.

But with the sporadic closure of borders and an international embargo following the Hamas election victory last year, this dream of a brighter economic future in Gaza never came to fruition.

PEDC has gone bankrupt and the remaining greenhouse settlements lie dormant.

The Rafah crossing, the only gateway to the outside world for Gazan travellers remains under Israeli jurisdiction, while Israel is denying access to all Palestinian labourers into Israel.

Airspace is completely off limits, while access to the Mediterranean Sea is limited to six nautical miles, far from sufficient for the Palestinian fishing industry.

Building a country

Nevertheless, there is some sense of hope for many of the workers and planners.

Mostafa A-Najjar, a day labourer in Israel for 18 years, has been working in construction on the rehabilitation project of al-Aqsa University in Neve Dekalim.

"Praise God," he says concerning his new job.

"I have to do everything 100 per cent because I know who I am working for - we are building our own country."

Undercover Israeli troops have killed a senior member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades near Jenin in the northern West Bank, according to a Palestinian security source.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the territory, Palestinian fighters wounded four Israelis in an attack outside the Jewish settlement of Naaleh, according to the Israeli military.

Ashraf Hanaisha, an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader, was killed on Tuesday by Israeli troops dressed in plain clothes, a Palestinian source said,

"During a routine operation south of Jenin, troops saw a man pull a pistol and opened fire on him," AFP reported the Israeli military as saying.

But the Reuters news agency reported an unnamed Israeli source as saying that a "special unit" of Israeli border police had identified Hanaisha "as a senior operative in the area and surrounded the vehicle in which he was travelling".

"The force saw that he had drawn his weapon. They fired at him and he was killed," the source said.

Local residents said the undercover troops drove a blue civilian car that cut off the vehicle

They said the Israeli troops shot Hanaisha after ordering the other passengers to flee.

Drive-by attack

Earlier, Palestinian fighters shot and wounded four Israelis in a car near a Jewish settlement of Naaleh in the occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli army.

"One was wounded seriously and three others lightly. The four were driving in a car when they were shot at by fire from another vehicle," an Israeli army spokesman said.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has claimed responsibility for the drive-by attack, but it was unclear whether the Israeli operation near Jenin was undertaken in response to the attack.

The violence coincides with the annual Palestinian "Prisoners Day", in which vigils and rallies are held in the West Bank and Gaza to press Israel to release 11,000 jailed Palestinians.

An Israeli missile destroyed a car near the site from which three rockets had been fired into Israel
Israeli troops have killed two Palestinian fighters in the West Bank town of Nablus, hours after at least six Palestinians were killed in raids in Gaza.

The raids on Sunday and Saturday were the worst flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in months.

Fadel Nur, 23, and Amin Lubadi, 25, both members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed by Israeli fire early on Sunday.

Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops killed them after surrounding the house in which they were hiding.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the Nablus raid.

Earlier, Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians in raids that involved a deadly air strike in Gaza.

Islamic Jihad said a 45-year-old man was killed in the missile fired by an Israeli jet fighter on Saturday.

The Palestinian group described him as a civilian but said he was riding in a car with two fighters, who were seriously wounded.

The Israeli army said the air strike, only the second in Gaza since a November truce, hit fighters who had fired makeshift rockets at the border town of Sderot.

One of the rockets hit a house in the Israeli border town of Sderot but did not cause any injuries, Israeli police said.

Three Palestinian groups - Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - claimed joint responsibility for the Sderot rocket attack.

In a statement on Saturday, they said the attack was to avenge the deaths of Palestinian fighters shot dead earlier in the day in a West Bank city.

Undercover unit

A Palestinian security source said the three fighters were killed by an Israeli undercover unit while driving down a street in Jenin.

Late on Saturday night, Israeli soldiers returned to the Jenin refugee camp, sparking a fierce firefight with local fighters.

Palestinian officials said a 17-year-old girl, identified as Bushra Wahash, was shot by Israeli gunfire as she peered out the window of her home.

The Israeli army said it was investigating the report.

Policeman killed

A Palestinian policeman was also shot dead by Israeli troops operating in a village near Jenin, a Palestinian security source said.

"Killing the Palestinian policeman means that Israel's escalation does not even rule out the Palestinian security services"

Adnan al-Damiri, Jenin's police chief
Israeli forces had raided Kafr Dan looking for people it described as "wanted activists", Al Jazeera's correspondent reported.

Residents told Al Jazeera that Israeli snipers positioned on the occupied buildings opened fire at Abed.

His family said he was in the house at the time and unarmed. He was shot twice and died immediately, they said.

Israeli forces continued to carry out search operations in Kafr Dan and detained at least 10 people.

Adnan al-Damiri, Jenin's police chief, accused the Israeli army of targeting its officers and held it responsible for the ongoing escalation in Jenin.

He said: "Killing the Palestinian policeman means that Israel's escalation does not even rule out the Palestinian security services."

Al-Damiri said Palestinian police consider the Israeli operation an attempt to obstruct its efforts to restore security in Jenin.

School attacked

In a separate incident on Saturday, three explosive devices were set off in the American International School in Gaza City, causing damage but no injuries, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

Three explosive devices were set off at the
American International School [AFP]

Rebhi Salem, the school's director, said: "A large number of masked gunmen attacked the school at dawn.

"They poured petrol all around and blew up several explosive devices and destroyed some of the premises."

Salem quoted the armed men as saying that they were part of an al-Qaeda organisation operating in Gaza.

The school is a private institution that is part of an association of "American Schools" in the Middle East.

The curriculum stresses English as well as Arabic studies. None of the teachers are American and a US embassy official said the school has no connection to the US government.

Two members of staff were briefly abducted from the school in March 2006.