Israelis kill four Palestinians including toddler

GAZA - Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians yesterday including two near the West Bank town of Tulkarm last night.

Israeli military sources said the soldiers shot at the men's car after they ignored warning shots and tried to drive through an Army checkpoint.

But a Palestinian witness from a village close to the checkpoint gave a different account.

Rajla Khalil, a resident of the Jaroushiyeh village, said she saw troops chase two men into an olive grove on foot, and then heard gunshots.

Hours earlier, Israeli helicopters killed two Palestinian children aged 13 and 3 in the West Bank city of Hebron when the copters fired on the car of an Islamic militant who Israel said was planning more suicide attacks.

Israeli helicopter gunships also destroyed a Palestinian security headquarters in the Gaza Strip yesterday, before the start of a European Union mission intended to bolster United States peace efforts.

At least five missiles reduced to rubble a building used by Force 17, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's elite bodyguard unit, in the town of Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City. The Israeli Army said it was in response to Palestinian mortar fire.

Palestinian officials said two surface-to-surface missiles were also fired soon afterwards, but nobody was hurt in the attack.

The building, which was empty at the time, was wrecked.

"Four mortar bombs were fired today at an Israeli settlement in the central Gaza Strip, in which an Israeli girl was lightly wounded," the Army said.

"In response, the Army struck tonight a Force 17 building."

Israel has blamed Arafat for a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings that have killed at least 29 people in Israel since US envoy Anthony Zinni began a mission two weeks ago to end 14 months of violence.

Arafat denies blame for the attacks, but is under intense pressure to do more to rein in militants out to avenge Israel's killing of one of their leaders in a missile strike.

Israeli spokesman Raanan Gissin said he regretted the death of the two children in Hebron, but added: "We are in a war right now."

- REUTERS

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