Israeli troops kill suspected militant

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said it ambushed two settlers

Israeli soldiers have killed a Palestinian and wounded another in the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel.

The Israeli army said its troops opened fire after the two Palestinians entered an area near the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, which lies just inside Israel.

Palestinian security officials said the injured man had been taken to hospital and the body of the other man handed over by the Israeli military.

Meanwhile, Palestinian militants shot at Jewish settlers travelling in a car near the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, injuring two people, Israeli sources said.

Israel Radio said one of the wounded was in serious condition.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, said it carried out the shooting.

Following the attack an Israeli tank opened fire on a house in Jenin, without causing any casualties, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said.

An Israeli military official told AFP the house had been targeted after it was believed the Palestinian gunmen from the shooting incident had taken refuge there, but witnesses said the house was actually empty.

'Forbidden area'

An Israeli military source said the two Palestinian men they fired at were "in an area forbidden to Palestinians."

"They were not armed but had a mobile phone and maps and drawings of the area, proof that they were trying to gather intelligence for the next terrorist attack," the source said.

Palestinian security officials identified the dead man as Mohammed Awad, 26, and said he was active in Islamic Jihad's military wing, the al-Quds Brigade.

Earlier this month, Palestinian militants planted an anti-tank land mine in the same area where the two men were shot and attempted to carry out a suicide bombing there last week.

Also on Wednesday, 16-year-old Palestinian Salah Abdelghafar died from injuries sustained during the Israeli air strike on the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza on 20 October.

His death brings the toll for the Nusseirat strike to 12.