Three killed in West Bank clash

Northern Gaza has been wracked by violence this week

Three Palestinian militants have been killed by Israeli troops in the town of Qalqilya, in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli army said the men were members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

A fourth man, said to be the local leader of the radical group al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, linked to Fatah, was wounded in the attack.

Twenty-six Palestinians have died in recent violence in the Gaza and the West Bank.

The Israeli army said the three militants in Qalqilya were killed after they ignored orders to stop and tried to flee.

Palestinian sources said they were killed in an ambush by undercover Israeli soldiers.

Witnesses identified the wounded man as Attef Shaaban, the local head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Palestinians at the scene said that two of those killed were known members of Fatah, but not militants, while the third was Attef Shaaban's deputy.

Israeli officials said all the men were wanted militants.

On Thursday, three Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Tulkarm. Local sources said they were from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Gaza clashes

Two Israeli soldiers stationed near the Kfar Darom settlement in the southern Gaza Strip were slightly injured in an attack claimed jointly by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committee.

On Thursday, two Palestinian girls aged four and 11 were killed during an Israeli army incursion into the northern Gaza Strip.

A 16-year-old boy was also killed during a third day of clashes in Beit Lahiya, in which 16 Palestinians have died and at least 20 have been injured.

Israeli military sources say troops, who have now withdrawn, launched the raid to stop rocket attacks into Israel.

The Palestinian teenage boy and 11-year-old girl were both killed by Israeli fire, Palestinian medical sources said. The four-year-old girl died of tear-gas inhalation, Dr Mahmoud al-Assali, the director of Jabalya hospital in Gaza, told the Reuters news agency.

Israeli bulldozers have destroyed several houses and buildings in Beit Lahiya in the past three days, and according AFP a centre for handicapped people was among the buildings blown up. An Israeli army spokesman said the building was unoccupied at the time.

Violence in Gaza has surged since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced unilateral plans to withdraw Jewish settlements from the coastal territory as part of his disengagement plan.