Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian militant in a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip early this morning in fresh violence hours after talks were held to try to salvage a US-backed peace plan.
Top Palestinian and Israeli security officials met late last night to discuss a possible Israeli troop pullback from northern Gaza in exchange for a Palestinian crackdown on militants ahead of the arrival of a veteran US diplomat.
Concerned about the future of the Middle East peace "road map," amid growing violence, US President George W. Bush sent Mr John Wolf to the region to meet with Palestinian and Israeli leaders in coming days in an attempt to keep the plan alive.
Mr Wolf's job was likely to be difficult, as the bloodshed showed little sign of abating after a week in which more than 50 people were killed.
Just hours after Palestinian security chief Mr Mohammed Dahlan met Israeli Major General Amos Gilad, an Israeli shot and killed a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group affiliated to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, in a shootout in northern Gaza, Palestinian medics and the army said.
They said four other Palestinians were injured in the clash. Israeli media said the talks focused on a possible Israeli pullback from parts of the Gaza Strip and quoted Palestinians as saying they were positive.
Despite the violence, Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim told Israel's Channel 10 that the offer to pull back troops in certain areas remained on the table.
But an Israeli security source said Israeli forces would "not move a centimetre" unless Mr Dahlan presented a plan for cracking down on radical factions - a step he and reformist Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas have been reluctant to take.