Joint Palestinian attack kills three Israeli troops

GAZA - Gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers, two of them women, at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip on Friday in a joint shooting and grenade attack by the two main Palestinian Islamic militant groups.


In another part of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops shot dead an 11-year-old Palestinian boy near a Jewish settlement on Friday afternoon. Israeli military sources denied any Israeli army fire during that time.


The combined assault on the settlement by Islamic Jihad and Hamas followed an agreement by their leaders at talks in Syria this week to increase coordination of attacks against Israelis in the three-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.


The Israeli army said at least one militant infiltrated the heavily guarded Netzarim settlement before dawn and opened fire before soldiers shot him dead. Two of the Israeli dead were women and two other soldiers were wounded, one seriously.


Hamas and Islamic Jihad said two gunmen entered the settlement throwing grenades and then fired shots in a "heroic operation". The Jihad member escaped, it said, and the army said efforts to find the second attacker were hampered by fog.


The violence was a further blow to the stalled US-backed peace "road map" after Israel killed 13 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, in air raids on Monday and Palestinian gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers in an ambush on Sunday.


The thirteenth Palestinian died on Friday of his wounds.


Israel blamed Friday's attack on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who says a crackdown on militants would risk civil war.


"It all boils down to Arafat. As long as he is here he will reject any peace efforts," said Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir.


The road map has stalled amid violence, Palestinian political infighting and Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements and a security barrier in the West Bank.


Washington has been critical of the barrier due to its intrusion on territory Palestinians plan for their state.


Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Friday that a plan was in the works to extend the barrier into the eastern part of the West Bank, a move that would completely encircle Palestinians by electronic fences and concrete walls.


"At the moment, we are planning the route and when it will be ready, it will be brought before the government (for approval)," Sharon told Israeli television in response to a question about where the eastern portion of the fence would be located.


The Palestinians say Israel is blocking peace hopes. The military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their attacks on Friday were a response to Israeli "crimes", meaning the recent air strikes and other military raids.


In an incident that could increase fears for the security of politicians, Arab-Israeli parliamentarian Issam Makhoul said he feared that an explosion that set his car ablaze in Israel's port city of Haifa had been caused by a bomb planted under it.


Makhoul's wife was in the car at the time but was unhurt. Attacks on politicians are rare in the conflict but Israel's parliament tightened security this week, fearing an attack.


Hamas said the gunman killed on Friday was Samir Fouda, a resident of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza. About 4000 people attended a pro-Hamas rally which stopped at Fouda's house.


Hamas and Islamic Jihad have killed hundreds of Israelis in attacks, usually operating independently of each other. Their leaders however agreed in Syria on Monday to strengthen cooperation in battling "Zionist aggression".


Hours before the attack at Netzarim, a Palestinian gunman shot at an Israeli army convoy in Gaza, lightly wounding at least two people. Soldiers then killed him.


- REUTERS