Israeli forces kill three Palestinian security men

Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinian security men in a gunbattle and wounded at least 20 people in a separate raid on a refugee camp yesterday, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

The bloodshed, which followed a mortar bomb attack that wounded 10 Israeli soldiers, showed that renewed US peace efforts after the Iraq war have had little impact on Israeli-Palestinian day-to-day violence.

Palestinian officials said Israeli undercover soldiers who drove up to a Palestinian guard post in a civilian car shot dead two security men and wounded two others in an exchange of fire near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim. An Army spokesman had no immediate comment.

Earlier, an Israeli armoured force backed by helicopter gunships raided the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, next to the Army base hit by the mortar bombs. Hospital officials said 20 Palestinians were wounded by a missile.