Israel strikes against Palestinians

Palestinian armoured vehicles in Gaza were targeted

Five Palestinian policemen have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops around the same time as Israel launched a major bombardment of Palestinian security targets across the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said that soldiers opened fire on "suspicious figures", but the exact circumstances of the incident are in dispute.

A Palestinian spokesman accused the Israelis of opening fire without reason near a roadblock at Bitunia west of Ramallah.

Fifteen people were injured in the attacks on Gaza

It was the highest Palestinian death toll in recent months since the Palestinian Intifada (or uprising) began last September after peace talks with Israel became deadlocked.

Israel carried out missile and artillery attacks on targets across Gaza overnight in response to what it described as "continuing Palestinian terrorist activities".

Warships off the coast fired shells at Palestinian naval police positions in central Gaza, while helicopter gunships attacked Palestinian armoured vehicles north of Khan Younis, near the Jabalya refugee camp.

Palestinian sources said at least 15 people were wounded in the Gaza bombardment.

Meanwhile Israeli positions were reported to have come under missile attack in the disputed Shebaa Farms area near the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.

Witnesses said the Israeli army responded by shelling southern Lebanon. There are no reports of casualties.

'Catastrophe Day'

A BBC correspondent in Jerusalem says the latest violence amounts to an intensification of the conflict, with the approach of the anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel on Tuesday. Palestinians call it al- Nakba day, a reference to what they commonly call "the catastrophe" of 1948.

Sharon has rejected a freeze on settlement building

A senior Palestinian official is in Washington on a mission to persuade President George W Bush's administration to intervene in the stalled Middle East peace process.

Mahmud Abbas is the highest-ranking Palestinian to be invited to Washington since Mr Bush took office in January.

Commenting on the Washington mission, a Palestinian official told voice of Palestine Radio: "The goal of the meetings is to look at ways to get out of the crisis."

Mr Abbas is due to discuss with US Secretary of State Colin Powell a report by an international panel which calls for Israel to freeze the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mr Powell has described the report as "very fine", saying it could "give us a launch pad to start a new initiative" in the Middle East.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already rejected any freeze on settlements.

The talks are also expected to explore an Egyptian-Jordanian plan that would lead to a full resumption of peace talks.