Israeli troops killed at least seven Palestinians today in the fiercest fighting in the Gaza Strip since the army invaded ten days ago to stop rocket attacks on southern Israel.
In an ambush in southern Gaza, Palestinian militants wounded two top army commanders, one of whom was in charge of preparing to implement an Israeli "disengagement" from the territory planned by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a military spokeswoman said.
Violence has surged in Gaza in the run-up to any withdrawal of settlers and soldiers from the area by the end of next year, with Palestinian militants and the army vying for supremacy.
Witnesses in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun said five of the dead were gunmen and two were non-combatants.
Israeli commander Colonel Avi Levy said his men reported eight or nine Palestinians killed and one soldier wounded.
A gunman in Beit Hanoun said his squad was trying to leave town via a back road when they were surprised by Israeli special forces on the ground and soldiers firing from rooftops.
"Three (of my comrades) were killed," he said. "A man came out of his house to help but he was hit by a sniper. A woman and her daughter were watching from their doorstep and were also hit by gunfire." Medics said the man and the woman were killed.
Asked about civilian casualties, Levy said no non-combatants were shot intentionally and the woman might have been hit when troops laid down covering fire to evacuate the wounded soldier.
In the West Bank, witnesses said Israeli troops fired without provocation at two Palestinians in the town of Qalqilya, killing one of them. Military sources described the dead Palestinian as a motorist who refused orders to stop, arousing suspicions he was a militant.
Faced with the possibility of a power vacuum in Gaza after an Israeli pullout, international mediators have stepped up pressure on Mr Arafat to institute security reforms to help keep militants in check.
Envoys from the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union told Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie yesterday that the world had run out of patience with Mr Arafat's "empty promises" of change, a senior diplomat said.