A Palestinian suicide bomber and at least four Israelis were killed when a large bomb exploded in a shopping centre in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, this morning. Around 45 people were injured, several of them seriously, in the explosion.
Earlier, Palestinians fired a mortar shell at an Israeli settlement in Gaza.
The shell exploded among the greenhouses at the Jewish settlement of Gadid, in the southern Gaza Strip after daybreak.
A shell also landed near Nir Am, an Israeli village just outside Gaza, and another exploded in the yard of a house in the Jewish settlement of Netzer Hazani in the Gaza Strip. No-one was hurt.
In a message to The Associated Pressnews agency, the Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the first two mortar attacks.
Israeli tanks entered Palestinian territory, firing shells and machine guns, Palestinian security officials said. They said the Israeli forces progressed about 900 yards, remained about 15 minutes and withdrew.
The Israeli military said its forces entered the territory to prevent mortars from being fired at Israeli civilians.
Meanwhile, Palestinians and Israelis began diplomatic manoeuvring around the report of the Mitchell Commission, headed by ex-US Senator Mr George Mitchell, appointed to study more than seven months of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and recommend ways to end it.
The Palestinians sent a letter to members of the US Congress, urging them to back the report's recommendations, emphasising that it does not charge that Palestinian officials planned the violence and calls on Israel to take a series of steps to relieve economic pressure on the West Bank and Gaza.
In response to one of the Commission's recommendations, Israel has said it will not build new settlements, but maintained that some construction is necessary to accommodate natural growth.
AFP/PA