Israelis kill West Bank teenager

Tulkarm has been the target of repeated Israeli raids

Israeli troops have shot dead a 13-year-old boy in the West Bank town of Tulkarm bringing the death toll there to at least six since Tuesday evening.

Israeli radio said the boy threw a firebomb at soldiers and they opened fire. The Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed he had been "martyred".

Troops shot dead a wanted militant and four other Palestinians during an incursion into the town in response to recent attacks on Israelis.

Elsewhere, two Palestinian gunmen were hemmed in and killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army says it arrested 36 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight.

It said that the militant killed in Tulkarm, Tareq al-Zaghal, had been involved in attacks in which at least six Israelis died.

Surprise attack

Residents in Tulkarm say the Tulkarm shootings happened shortly after the army announced it was lifting a curfew on the city.

Tanks backed by helicopter gunships rolled into the eastern part of the city before dusk.

According to Palestinian sources, a special unit of Israeli commandos disguised as Palestinians killed Mr al-Zaghal after a shoot-out at his hideout.

The 25-year-old was a member of the radical al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades which has carried out scores of deadly attacks on Israeli targets since the latest intifada began.

The army said two Palestinians were shot dead when they tried to run down soldiers at a roadblock as troops were trying to arrest Mr al-Zaghal.

Palestinian sources said troops also shot dead a teenager who climbed on top of an armoured vehicle and a civilian security guard.

The Israeli military has repeatedly raided Tulkarm since clashes with Palestinians erupted in September 2000.

Crushed by tanks

Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip trapped and killed two Palestinian gunmen after they were caught trying to break into the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom overnight, Israeli media reported.

The troops pursued the two into a Palestinian-controlled area and, after a prolonged gun battle, demolished a house in which they were sheltering.

Palestinian radio said the two men were killed in a house in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp which borders Kfar Darom, crushed to death when tanks demolished the building.