At least five Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed in a new upsurge of violence that is threatening international peace efforts. Two Palestinian gunmen infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Karmei Tzur near the West Bank city of Hebron.
The gunmen opened fire on a cluster of trailers, killing an Israeli man and his pregnant wife while they slept in their bed. Another Jewish settler died of wounds he received during the attack.
A security guard shot and killed one of the gunmen and the second escaped.
Shortly after the attack, Israeli troops raided the nearby Palestinian towns of Halhul and Beit Ummar, going door-to-door and rounding up Palestinians for interrogation. Palestinians say one man was killed during the operation.
At the Sufa crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers discovered the bodies of two Palestinians apparently killed by an explosion near the electronic fence that separates the area from Israel.
An Israeli naval unit fired on two other Palestinians as they attempted to swim ashore near the northern Gaza settlement of Dugit. The body of one man was recovered along with automatic weapons, ammunition and hand grenades.