Israeli helicopter gunships ambushed a car in the West Bank today, killing five Palestinians including two children with a double missile strike, Palestinian witnesses and medical officials said.
They said two Apache helicopters struck at Tubas village near Jenin in the afternoon, destroying the vehicle and killing its occupants, including a nine-year-old boy and a girl, also 9.
But some residents of Tubas said the children were outside the car, felled by flying debris which also wounded seven other people.
The three other people killed were men reportedly belonging either to the Islamic organisation Hamas or of a militant coalition called Palestinian Resistance.
However, Israel's army radio some or all of them hailed from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment.