Mid-East violence escalates

Another neighbourhood destroyed, this time in Rafah

Israeli troops and Palestinians have fought fierce gun battles after Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered Palestinian-controlled territory in the Gaza Strip for the second time in a week.

Israeli forces entered the Rafah area and demolished several houses which served as hiding places for gunmen firing at our troops

Israeli government spokesman

In other incidents, a blast at a house in Gaza used by the Islamic militant group Hamas killed an activist and injured several others, while two pipe bombs exploded in a suburb of Israel's main coastal city, Tel Aviv.

And on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Hezbollah guerrillas fired missiles at an Israeli tank, killing a soldier and drawing retaliatory Israeli air raids and artillery barrages on south Lebanon.

The violence came two days before Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs were due to sit down again in US-sponsored negotiations aimed at lowering tensions after six-and-a-half months of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian gunmen appeared in Rafah soon after the bulldozers

Israeli police blamed the pipe bombs, which went off in Kfar Saba, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Tel Aviv and near the border with the West Bank, on Palestinian militants.

They went off within an hour of each other, the first in a deserted residential street and the second, which wounded one person, as police were searching for additional devices in the fashionable district.

More house demolitions

About 40 Palestinians were injured, four of them critically, in two confrontations with Israelis forces, one in Gaza and the other in the West Bank.

In Gaza, the violence followed a 100-metre push by Israeli army bulldozers and three tanks into the Rafah refugee camp, demolishing a military intelligence headquarters and 15 houses.

Palestinian witnesses said residents of the refugee camp, including children, threw stones at the tanks before Palestinian gunmen and police arrived to confront the Israelis.

The Israelis are under fire in the Palestinian territories

The local hospital director said at least 35 Palestinians were wounded in the ensuing clashes, including a 16-year-old youth whose leg was blown off by a tank shell.

Earlier in the day the Israeli army said its soldiers in the Rafah area adjacent to the border with Egypt had twice come under hand grenade attack. No casualties were reported.

On Wednesday, the army made a major ground assault on a Palestinian-controlled area, demolishing houses in the Gazan refugee camp of Khan Younis which it said were used by gunmen.

'Bomb maker blown up'

Palestinian security forces said a bomb being prepared in Gaza City detonated, killing Hamas activist Muhammad Nassar and wounding five others.

However, Hamas officials said the house, which was completely destroyed, had been hit by Israeli rockets.

Elsewhere, Palestinian stone throwers clashed with troops firing live and rubber bullets and teargas in the Kalandia refugee camp in the West Bank. Six Palestinians were injured.

The violence comes ahead of security talks and a meeting between the Israeli and Jordanian foreign ministers.

The visit by Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdulilah al-Khatib will be the first to Israel by a Jordanian minister since the country elected hardline nationalist Ariel Sharon as prime minister in February.