Four Palestinians and an Israeli were shot dead in separate incidents of an upsurge of violence in Gaza and the West Bank today.
Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on a southern Gaza Strip refugee camp. A fourth Palestinian was shot trying to scale a border fence out of Gaza and an Israeli man was killed by a gunman in the West Bank.
Violence has increased following a brief lull after Yasser Arafat's death last month raised new hopes for peace in the Middle East.
Israeli soldiers opened fire in several instances at gunmen during a military raid in Khan Younis refugee camp launched in an effort to stop mortar attacks on nearby Jewish settlements, a military spokesman said.
The raid into Khan Younis followed one last week the army said was intended to destroy mortar launch sites in which 11 Palestinians were killed.
Israel had cut back on military operations in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip following Arafat's death, in an apparent bid to bolster a new, more moderate Palestinian leadership before a January 9th election to choose his successor.
But militants have vowed no let-up in their attacks on Jewish enclaves in Gaza as Israel presses ahead with a plan to remove all 21 settlements in the coastal strip and four of 120 in the West Bank in 2005.