Three Palestinians and an Israeli settler in the West Bank were killed yesterday in a fresh spasm of violence as Israeli troops maintained a stranglehold around the Gaza Strip border town of Beit Hanoun.
The three Palestinians killed in yesterday's violence were a militant trying to infiltrate a Jewish settlement, a Palestinian shot dead after a car-chase by Jerusalem police and a youth killed in clashes with stone-throwers in Beit Hanoun.
Violence has surged since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he planned to evacuate settlers and soldiers by the end of next year, as Palestinian militants and the army vie for supremacy in Gaza before a withdrawal.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group within Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction claimed the killing of a Jewish settler.
Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an Israeli car near the city of Jenin shortly after dawn yesterday, killing the 49-year-old driver and lightly wounding his wife.
The Brigades said the shooting avenged Israel's killing of its West Bank commander in a raid into Nablus on June 26.
In Jerusalem, Israeli paramilitary border police in civilian clothes killed a Palestinian after chasing his vehicle on suspicion that it was carrying Palestinians without entry permits, a police spokesman said.
A police spokesman said the van pursued tried to "run down one of the policemen... and then pulled over and stopped. The driver got out and fled on foot.
"Police fired in the air, and when he didn't stop, shot towards him. He was fatally wounded," he said.
Israel Radio said police had launched an internal investigation of the incident. Several hours earlier soldiers killed a Palestinian gunman the army said was trying to slip into Har Bracha settlement near Nablus to carry out an attack.
Residents of his village said he belonged to the militant Islamic Jihad group.
In Gaza, a 17-year-old boy was killed by Israeli gunfire at the entrance to Beit Hanoun, Palestinian medical sources said. Doctors said two other youths were hit in the legs by bullets.
Military sources said troops opened fire to disperse a riot at the entrance to the town, hitting the ring-leader.
Israeli troops have been operating around Beit Hanoun since a rocket militants fired from the area killed a three-year-old Israeli boy and a man aged 49 in the Israeli town of Sderot on June 27.
Military sources said the soldiers could remain in northern Gaza for months to prevent further rocket attacks. Palestinian militants fired several makeshift rockets towards southern Israel yesterday, causing no casualties.
In confrontations with stone-throwers in Beit Hanoun on Saturday, Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinian boys aged nine and 15, medics said.
A Palestinian opinion poll released yesterday showed almost half of Palestinians oppose Egypt's offer of a security role in Gaza if Israel pulls out, underscoring deep-seated concern that it would serve only Israeli interests.
It also found surging popularity for Islamic militants who fear an Egyptian presence could tie their hands in conflict with Israel if the Jewish state carries out its plan to keep Gaza sealed off and annex parts of the West Bank after a pullout.