An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian gunman were killed in a gun battle near the West Bank city of Tulkarm last night.
The Israeli army claimed soldiers were pursuing a group of armed Palestinians when they came under fire in a field on the outskirts of the Palestinian-ruled village of Saida which they had raided overnight.
A soldier and one of the gunmen were shot dead and another soldier was wounded in the gunfire, the army said. Troops captured two of the gunmen and arrested seven wanted militants during the raid, the army added.
Islamic Jihad, one of the main groups behind a wave of suicide bombings against Israelis during a 29-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence, said its militants were involved in the clash.
In nearby Qalqilya, Palestinians said soldiers shot and wounded six people, including two members of the mainstream Fatah faction said by the army to have resisted arrest.
The army said they carried two bomb belts at the time of their arrest. Palestinian witnesses said the arrest began when soldiers in uniform and plain clothes surrounded the entrance to an office building in the centre of the city.