Three Palestinians, including a four-month old baby girl, died today as Israel stepped up its military response to Palestinian attacks and apprehended a boat running arms to the Palestinians.
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Iman Hajjour was killed by shell-fire when Israeli forces struck at the town and refugee camp of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip in retaliation for Palestinian mortar attacks on Jewish settlements.
Her sister, Suzanne, 19, was seriously wounded and 20 other people slightly injured, Palestinian officials said, while the Palestinian Authority immediately revived its call for an international protection force.
"After this butchery, we call on the international community to provide international protection to the Palestinian people," said the secretary of the Palestinian presidency, Mr Tayeb Abdel Rahim.
A 30-year-old Palestinian policeman, Murad al-H'ruch, was killed and two of his colleagues injured when Israeli soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian patrol in Samuaa, near the West Bank town of Hebron, a Palestinian security official said.
This afternoon, the Israeli navy intercepted a ship by Rosh Hanikra along the Israeli-Lebanese border that was carrying arms to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Navy Admiral Mr Yedit Yahari told reporters: "Apparently, the sender was Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command."
Papers of the group - an offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organisation - were found on the boat, Admiral Yahari said.
The ship, which came from Lebanon, was carrying anti-aircraft missiles, Katiusha rockets, SA-7 missiles, anti-tank grenades, mortar shells and automatic weapons, Israeli television said.
The seized arsenal would have enabled the Palestinians to hit more distant targets than those they can reach at present with mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip, Israeli television added.
The Palestinian leadership in the occupied territories denied any links to the arms trafficking.
"The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation do not have any connection with the intercepted boat which was not headed towards the Palestinian coastline," said Palestinian information minister Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo.
Earlier, the Israeli army launched a raid into the autonomous Palestinian town of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, following a firefight in which one Palestinian - Hussein Khader Abu Tamam (45) - was killed and 10 others wounded.
An officer in the Israeli border guards said troops entered an area, which is under total Palestinian control, and used a bulldozer to destroy a police post from which the Palestinians were firing weapons.
Israeli forces also staged a brief incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory at Dar Salah east of Bethlehem in pursuit of a car from which shots had been fired, setting off a 20-minute gun battle with Palestinian police.
Israeli troops made two more raids into autonomous Palestinian areas later in the day.
AFP