The Palestinians rejected an Israeli demand for a ceasefire during a security meeting between the two sides in the West Bank town of Ramallah this evening, a Palestinian official said. The meeting had been overshadowed by an attack on an Israeli army roadblock on the Gaza Strip earlier today when two suicide bombers blew themselves up and wounded one person.
The bombers blew themselves up near a roadblock used by Palestinian workers in southern Gaza in an area of Jewish settlements, the Israeli Army Radio said. It said one person was wounded but had no further details.
Earlier one British and two American journalists kidnapped in Gaza by an Islamic group called the Fatah Hawks, were released.
Tension is high in the region after Israel announced it has approved the building of 710 more homes in two West Bank settlements.
Earlier two Israelis were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen in West Bank attacks only a few hours apart and a Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in an eruption of violence ahead of a meeting aimed at quelling the unrest.
The meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials, due to focus on the West Bank security situation, follows mediation by US Middle East envoy Mr William Burns, who shuttled between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat over the past two days.
In the first shooting a Jewish settlement security officer, was hit in the head by shots fired from another car near the settlement of Kedumim, west of Nablus in the northern West Bank, an Israeli army spokesman said.
Later an Israeli woman was killed and four others injured when their car came under fire from Palestinian gunmen on the Jerusalem-Hebron road near the settlement of Neve Daniel south-west of Bethlehem.
A 20-year-old Palestinian was later shot dead and two others injured by Israeli security forces near a checkpoint at the entrance to the autonomous Palestinian city of Jericho.
AFP