Israeli army kills three Gaza gunmen

The Israeli military says its troops have killed three Palestinian militants who attacked one of its armoured vehicles in the northern Gaza Strip.

The three Palestinians opened fire with rifles at the vehicle between the Jewish settlements of Alei Sinai and Nitzanit, on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, the military sources said.

The gunmen were killed by return fire from a tank, the sources said.

Earlier, Israeli media had reported a marked reduction in attacks by Palestinians since their leader, Yasser Arafat, publicly called for a halt to violence two weeks ago.

The Israeli Defence Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, told a Cabinet meeting that the number and severity of attacks had dropped for a second week in a row.