Ten Palestinians Killed in West Bank Raids

Israeli forces in the West Bank killed 10 Palestinians, at least eight of whom were thought to be Islamic militants, in two separate gun battles in the last 24 hours.

Backed by helicopter gunships and tanks, Israeli troops this morning killed five gunmen from the Islamic Jihad group in a hideout the battle-ravaged Jenin refugee camp, army officials said.

The Israeli army originally said a sixth person was killed but later said that the man was among several wounded gunmen who escaped.

The Israeli raid began just after daybreak with armored vehicles surrounding the house. Palestinians fired from inside the house and from the roof and an adjacent alley, the Israeli army said. Troops returned fire, killing the men.

The militants had been standing watch over the camp throughout the night and had just returned to their hideout for breakfast and sleep when Israeli forces surrounded them, said a local Islamic Jihad leader, Sheik Bassam Saedi.

As part of a wide-ranging assault aimed at crushing militant Palestinian groups around the West Bank last April, Israeli forces flattened the centre of the camp, and battles there killed at least 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers.

Army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal said the military was trying to prevent Islamic Jihad members from regrouping in the camp.

Last night another Israeli force entered the nearby village of Tamoun to search for militants, and five Palestinians were killed in exchanges of fire.

The Israeli military said at least three were from the Islamic Hamas group and were high on a list of fugitives. The army said Israeli troops searching their hideout found a belt of explosives, apparently to be worn by a suicide bomber, along with Israeli army uniforms.

In both operations, soldiers also found M-16 and Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition stashed away.

Both Islamic groups have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in scores of suicide bombings and other attacks in more than 29 months of fighting.

Earlier yesterday afternoon, Israeli troops were also hunting for militants in remote hills of the southern West Bank and mistakenly killed two Israelis in a hail of gunfire, including a missile fired by a helicopter.

The shooting raised new questions about what human rights groups say is the quick use of arms by soldiers in Palestinian areas.

Danny Yatom, an opposition Labour party politician, said the event showed soldiers use excessive force. "The fact that the car was hit with 200 bullets, when there was only one person in the vehicle - even if he was suspected of being a terrorist - shows that there may have been an exaggerated use of fire," he told Army Radio Friday.

The two men killed by friendly fire, aged 22 and 23, were private guards keeping watch over a mobile phone antenna on a hill near the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Their white station wagon, which had red stickers in Hebrew with the words "security" on the sides and hood, was riddled with dozens of bullets. One man was outside the car when he was killed by a helicopter-fired missile, military officials said.

The shooting around midday, came after Israeli forces in the area received warnings that Palestinian gunmen were planning to attack the nearby Jewish settlement of Pnei Hever, the army said.

Elite troops lying in wait for armed Palestinians were told by a lookout post that a gunman had been spotted running toward a white car parked on a deserted hillside, Israeli military reporters said.

The man did not heed a call by soldiers to stop, the army said. Major General Moshe Kaplinski attributed the deaths to "an operational failure by the troops observing the area" from a nearby hill.

The firing on the two guards, one of them an Israeli army officer on leave, raised questions about the army's rules of engagement in Palestinian areas.

"We've said for a long time that the firing orders are too lax," said Lior Yavne, a spokesman for B'Tselem, an Israeli group that monitors Israeli human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "The soldiers see suspicious figures, fire first and ask questions later."