Israeli army kill man in Gaza

Hebron victim Rajai Abu Rajab was buried on Saturday

A Palestinian man has been shot dead by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources said 48-year-old Yahia al-Daya was killed late on Saturday when an Israeli army tank shell hit his home in the village of al-Mughraka.

The G8 did not want to antagonise Mr Sharon

However, the Israeli army said that soldiers came under fire from Palestinian gunmen and returned fire with heavy machine guns.

An Israeli spokeswoman said that the soldiers had earlier fired from their position on a tank when they were fired on near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

Earlier on Saturday, an explosion in a block of flats in the West Bank city of Nablus seriously wounded a Palestinian man linked to the militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), witnesses and hospital sources said.

Palestinian police refused to comment immediately on the cause of the blast.

The military unit of the PFLP has claimed responsibility for a number of car bombings inside Israel.

Late on Saturday, an explosive device aimed at Israeli soldiers was detonated north of the Palestinian-ruled town of Tulkarem in the West Bank, the army said. No one was hurt in the attack.

Genoa plan

The G8 on Saturday backed the idea of sending international observers to monitor the Middle East peace process - something to which Israel remains firmly opposed.

Diya al-Tmaizi is believed to be the youngest victim

Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said that "in an extreme situation he would accept the sending of members of the CIA," but that he still rejected "the presence of another international force".

G8 leaders said that observers would promote peace in the region.

"There is a need for immediate action," a statement released in Genoa said.

However, G8 leaders avoided using the phrase "international observers" - preferring "third-party monitoring" to try and mollify Israeli objections.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Saturday called on the G8 to "send international observers as quickly as possible".

Tensions have been high since a three-month-old Palestinian baby, Diya al-Tmeizi, and two men were shot near Hebron on Thursday by members of an outlawed Jewish extremist group.

Another Palestinian, Rajai Abu Rajab, died in an explosion in Hebron on Friday evening.

The baby is thought to be the youngest person to have been killed in the past 10 months of violence, which has claimed the lives of at least 490 Palestinians, 128 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs.