An Israeli tank incursion into the Gaza Strip early Wednesday killed five Palestinians, on the heels of a deadly attack by Palestinian resistance fighters on a nearby Jewish settlement, Palestinian hospital sources told AFP.
TV reports said that seven Palestinian security posts were shelled by Israeli tanks in the Gaza Strip, and that the city of Gaza was under helicopter and warships fire.
Four of the killed were security personnel, said Al Jazeera satellite channel.
Late on Tuesday, three Palestinian gunmen who raided an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip, killing three Jewish settlers, were shot dead by Israeli snipers.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli snipers shot dead two attackers, then discovered a third who had not been with the other two.
Israel blamed the Palestinian Authority for the attack.
"This attack is the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army will take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of civilians and soldiers," cabinet secretary Gideon Saar told the army radio station, quoted by AFP.
"If the Palestinian Authority, which has undertaken to curb terrorist operations, fails to do so, our army will take care of it," he added.
The Qatar-based TV station added that the house they took over had no residents in it.
The gunmen killed three Jewish settlers and injured at least four others late Tuesday in the raid on the Elei Sinai settlement north of the Gaza strip.
AFP, however, reported that only two Israeli soldiers died in the raid.
Al Jazeera had said earlier that two Palestinian resistance fighters shot the three settlers dead during a raid and then broke into a house and held its occupants hostage.
At least four other settlers were also wounded, settler sources were cited by AFP as saying, while the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper reported eight wounded.
This might be the first attack of its kind, according to Haaretz.
The Israeli government has flouted both the Oslo peace accords and international law by settling tens of thousands of its citizens on land conquered from Palestinians in 1967.
Israeli TV reported that a gun-battle broke out between the Palestinians and Jews inside the settlement, which lies close to the edge of the administrative boundary with Israel. The paper said there were children among the wounded.
According to AFP, the army rushed reinforcements to the scene and a helicopter was overflying the area.
Israel media also reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was considering convening his cabinet during the night to discuss the response to the attack and the impact of the operation on the fragile ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Palestinian police in Bethlehem tried to arrest the head of the armed wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's own Fateh movement in the city late on Tuesday, according to various sources.
Palestinian security officials were cited by AFP a saying Palestinian President Yasser Arafat himself had ordered the arrest of Ataf Abayat, who according to Haaretz is suspected of being involved in the killing of Sarit Amrani, a Jewish settler, two weeks ago.
But the police were forced to negotiate with Abayat's armed followers on how he was to give himself up, with a number of supporters reportedly threatening to open fire on the neighboring Jewish settlement of Gilo, AFP said.
In the end, a compromise was reached whereby Abayat signed a police document acknowledging he had been arrested but was not put in prison, officials cited by AFP said.
The local police chief, Colonel Abu Zeid Hadad, was relieved of his duties, the same sources said.
The move appeared to be a sign that Arafat was responding to Israeli and US pressure to crack down on suspected militants.
Israel wants Arafat to uphold his side of a ceasefire agreement signed last week by jailing militants who pose a threat to Israel.
Arafat also condemned the deadly attack the Jewish settlement, calling it "aggression against the ceasefire" he had signed with Israel, the WAFA news agency said.
Arafat gave orders to the Palestinian security forces to find out which militant group was behind the attack, the official agency of the Palestinian Authority said.
Since the eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli occupation, over 630 Palestinians and over 170 Israelis have been killed.
Human rights groups have stated that the occupation forces fire at demonstrators in situations in which their own lives are in no immediate danger.
Amnesty International reported in the first few months of the uprising that Israeli soldiers had shot dead nearly 100 Palestinian children - Albawaba.com
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