Two Palestinians killed in W Bank

The West Bank town of Hebron has long been a flash point

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank.

The Israeli military said soldiers opened fire on a man who threw a petrol bomb at a patrol.

The incident happened near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which has long been a source of tension in Hebron.

Earlier, a 16-year-old was killed in a village near Nablus. The Israeli military said the youth had thrown petrol bombs and a pipe bomb at troops.

Overnight in the northern West Bank, Israeli troops arrested 29 wanted people they say are members of Hamas, the militant Islamist group that heads the Palestinian Authority.

However, the six-day-old truce in Gaza is holding.

The Israeli army says that 14 rockets have been fired into Israel since the truce was declared.

No Israelis were injured by the rockets and the Israeli army has not responded.

'Small opening'

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a small opening exists for a resumption of peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians.

Speaking after talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders, she said the fragile truce in the Gaza Strip should be strengthened and extended.

Ms Rice said that hopefully all sides could take advantage of the moment to move towards the goal of two states living peacefully side-by-side.

But she added: "This is the sort of thing that takes time - you don't expect great leaps forward, you expect progress and I think we've seen some progress."

In turn, Arab ministers from Egypt, Jordan and the six Gulf states have urged Ms Rice to encourage Israel to soften its security measures in the West Bank.

On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that talks on forming a unity government with Hamas had "unfortunately reached a dead end".

An aide to Mr Abbas, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said that the Palestinian leader was preparing new "political measures" to deal with the failure of these talks.

Palestinians factions have been trying to form a unity government, in which Hamas takes a back seat, in the hope that this will allow international donors to lift a financial embargo on the Palestinian Authority.