Gaza 'seaborne attack' thwarted

The Palestinians managed to swim ashore before they were killed

Israeli troops have killed two armed Palestinians who tried to infiltrate a Gaza Strip settlement from the sea, the Israeli army says.

The army said the gunmen first opened fire on an army outpost near the Tel Katif settlement on Thursday night.

Another Palestinian died when explosives he was transporting apparently blew up accidentally, and a fourth was shot dead during a protest.

Israel remains on high alert after it killed the leader of Hamas on Monday.

Three Palestinians from Hamas, clad in wetsuits and flippers, swam ashore to attack the settlement but were intercepted by troops.

Two were killed, while the third was wounded and apparently fled back into the sea, the Israeli military said.

The army said weapons, including anti-tank rockets, were found near the bodies.

A Hamas leaflet acknowledged the attempted attack on Tel Katif, calling it the first of "earthshaking operations to come".

'Accidental blast'

In the West Bank, a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades died when his car blew up in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus.

Palestinian security sources said explosives the man was transporting apparently detonated accidentally.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, blamed Israel for the blast.

In the town of Bethlehem, a Palestinian stone-thrower was shot dead by Israeli troops during a protest, Palestinian sources said.

The man was killed in a clash near the site of the tomb of the biblical matriarch Rachel, which is guarded by Israeli soldiers, Palestinians said.

The army said it was checking the report.

High alert

Tensions have soared since Israel killed Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a missile strike in Gaza.

Thousands of Palestinians staged rallies in protest at the killing in Gaza and the West Bank on Friday.

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says Israel is on a state of alert - just one level down from a state of emergency - amid fears of a violent response from Hamas.

He says there is a multi-layered and openly-visible security cordon around Jerusalem and all police and military leave has been cancelled.

Meanwhile, Arab members of the United Nations have reacted angrily after the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the killing of Yassin.

The US opposed the draft because it did not name Hamas as a terrorist group.

But the Palestinian representative to the UN, Nasser al-Kidwa, expressed disappointment at the UN's failure to pass the motion, saying "Millions will be unable to understand what happened".