The Israeli occupation army said the three soldiers were killed in the night-time raid on the heavily-guarded settlement

GAZA CITY, October 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Palestinian gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers in an attack on a military base near a Jewish settlement in Gaza early Friday, October 24, claimed by two Islamic resistance groups, as the army said it killed one assailant and a "would-be" Palestinian infiltrator.

The Israeli occupation army said two of the soldiers killed in the night-time raid on the heavily-guarded settlement were women and the third a male colleague. They were killed in their sleep in a caravan, according to military radio, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

An Israeli army spokesman said that a Palestinian, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and several grenades, crossed the security fence around Netzarim and penetrated the perimeter of a military base inside the seafront settlement.

He added that "the terrorist" opened fired at several soldiers in their housing sector, killing three and wounding two". "An Israeli unit which rushed to the scene chased and gunned down the terrorist."

Israel refers to armed Palestinian resistance fighters as "terrorists".

‘Claimed’

The attack was claimed jointly by the resistance movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Hamas member Samir Fuda, 22, from Jabalya refugee camp, was killed, and his Jihad co-assailant escaped.

In a statement, the two groups said the raid was launched to mark the eighth anniversary of the assassination in Malta of former Islamic Jihad chief Fathi Shaqaqi by suspected members of Israel's intelligence agency Mossad.

A leader of the Hamas military wing, Imad Aqel, was killed that same day in the Gaza Strip, it noted.

Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli army sources said a Palestinian was killed by troops overnight claiming he approached the northern settlement of Elei Sinai. His body was found in the morning next to the settlement's security fence.

Palestinian security sources and local residents said the 23-year-old man, whom they named as Ismail Ayad, was a mentally retarded resident of nearby Beit Lahya.

On Thursday, another Palestinian was gunned down after he shot and slightly wounded three Israelis driving from Kissufim towards the Gush Katif settlement bloc, in the central Gaza Strip, an army spokesman said.

The Israelis, two adults and a child, were hurt by flying glass, while the assailant from Islamic Jihad, named as 22-year-old Bilal Abu Hamudeh, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers.

Hospital sources, meanwhile, said two Palestinians wounded in an Israeli air raid earlier this week on Nusseirat refugee camp, just south of Netzarim, and in an incursion in Rafah, close to the Egyptian border, died of their injuries.

on Sunday, October 12, Israeli occupation forces had pressed on with their raid on southern Gaza Strip, leaving a ninth Palestinian dead for the third straight day, as the United Nations said more than 1,500 people were left homeless after the large-scale incursion.

The latest fatality raised the death toll for Monday's strike in Nusseirat camp to 11.

Since the September 2000 launch of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation, a total of 3,579 people have been killed, including 2,664 Palestinians and 849 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

Farmer Shot

In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot and badly wounded a Palestinian farmer north of Ramallah Thursday night, medics said.

Hassan Hamad, 44, was returning from picking olives on his land just east of Silwad village with his wife and two sons when Israeli soldiers in uniform drove up and opened fire without warning, his family said.

Local residents said that Hamad, who was seriously wounded in the chest, was randomly targeted in reprisal for an attack last Sunday that killed three soldiers.

However, an army source said the soldiers opened fire to ‘control’ olive pickers who started a riot after they were ordered out of the off-limit area where they were harvesting.

Despite international laws banning settlement in occupied areas, Israeli settlement building has expanded continually since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, increasing rapidly in the late 1970s when the current Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, was housing minister, said Haaretz.