Palestinians carry the body of one of the four people killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

Additional Reporting By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, June 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Four Palestinians were killed late Sunday, June 23, while planting an explosive device in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, as an Israeli soldier was wounded during a fresh incursion into Khan Younis.

The four People were killed by Israeli tank shells as they were caught planting the explosive, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

Israeli military sources denied any tank shells had been fired in the area and also said the Palestinian resistance fighters were probably killed by the premature explosion of their own bomb.

"According to an investigation in depth, no unit of the Israeli army opened fire on Sunday night in that sector," one source said. "But several Palestinians were seen there apparently carrying an explosive charge."

Another witness told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the four people might have died in the premature blast of an explosive device.

"It's possible the four were on their way to setting up a roadside bomb aimed at blowing up an Israeli tank," the witness said.

Three of the killed were identified as members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – an armed offshoot of Fatah group – and the fourth as member of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

At least two others were wounded in the attack.

Earlier on Sunday, a 27-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces near the Jewish settlement of Morag in central Gaza, Palestinian security sources were quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

Nearby, a 40 year-old woman and a 16-year-old Palestinian boy were also wounded when caught in the middle of a gun battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian resistance fighters near the settlement.

Palestinian security sources said the pair were hit by Israeli bullets.

In Rafah, to the south of the Strip, two Palestinians were wounded when Israeli forces opened random fire on the residents, director of Abu Seif al-Najar hospital at the area said.

The Sunday deaths bring to 3,360 the number of people killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation, including 2,528 Palestinians and 768 Israelis.

Israeli Soldier Injured

In the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, an Israeli soldier was wounded in a fire exchange with Palestinians during a fresh Israeli army incursion during which a house was demolished, said an Israeli military source.

The source added that a Qassam rocket was fired overnight from the Gaza Strip at the Jewish settlement of Sderot, inflicting great damage on a number of houses there.

The surge of violence followed the Israeli assassination Saturday, June 21, of the top Hamas official in the West Bank Abdullah Qawasmeh, which drew wide condemnation as it came at a sensitive time in which the Palestinian resistance group was close to agree a ceasefire with the Jewish state.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he "regret" the assassination" as it might aggravate the cycle of tit-for-tat violence in the region, while Hamas vowed the assassination would not go unpunished.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was defiant, describing the operation as "successful".

Israeli President Moshe Katsav defended Israel's such assassinations, saying the country had a duty to defend its citizens, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Asked in an interview on CNN if he was comfortable with Israel's policy of "targeted killings" Katsav replied: "If our intelligence have information that there is a preparation for a terrorist attack, ... it's our obligation to defend our citizens."

Israeli  was "very sorry" when accidents occur and civilians get caught in the crossfire.