Thu Apr 3, 1:45 AM ET

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By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in a raid by tanks and helicopter gunships on a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites) early on Thursday, witnesses and hospital officials said.

AP Photo Slideshow: Mideast Conflict

The army said the overnight operation in Rafah camp targeted buildings used by gunmen and arms smugglers. In the West Bank city of Nablus, special forces also killed a militant, it said.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, troops shot dead a 14-year-old boy outside his home in Qalqilya town. Israeli military sources said forces converging on the building to capture a militant suspect spotted the youth fleeing in the dark, and that he ignored shouted orders to stop. Two locals were later detained.

Despite Washington's appeals for calm, a 30-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence and Israeli military crackdowns have continued sporadically since the start of a U.S.-led war on Iraq (news - web sites) last month.

Witnesses said helicopters roared overhead as about 30 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers accompanied by armored bulldozers penetrated Rafah, a camp near Gaza's border with Egypt, just after midnight.

A Palestinian gunman was killed in the ensuing clashes. Another three people died in a helicopter missile strike. The army described them as fighters armed with rifles and grenades, while witnesses said they were unarmed bystanders.

The army razed four buildings it said had served as gun nests and access points for cross-border arms smuggling tunnels.

At least 1,966 Palestinians and 727 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt began in September 2000.

In Nablus, witnesses said Israeli special forces swooped on a residential building and, after its occupants fired at them, shot dead Khaled Samakri, a Jordanian citizen who had been in the West Bank for three years.

ARMY SAYS HAMAS MAN HELD

The army said Samakri was a wanted Hamas man, and that its forces arrested another member of the Islamic militant group in the predawn operation.

The overnight violence followed an Israeli sweep in the West Bank town of Tulkarm on Wednesday in which troops rounded up hundreds of Palestinians three days after a local suicide bomber struck a nearby Israeli seaside town, wounding 30 people.

Palestinian officials denounced the operation, accusing Israel of intensifying its clampdown on the Palestinians while world attention was turned to war in Iraq. Israel said the sweep was justified by heightened security concerns.

Palestinian witnesses said about 2,000 people were brought in. The Israeli army said it was about half that number.

Eleven were identified as wanted militants and taken into custody, the army said. It said most others were freed after identity checks and some were still being questioned.

The United States, chief mediator in the conflict, is now preoccupied with war in Iraq and facing rising anti-American resentment in the Arab world. It has urged Israel to restrain military operations and called on Palestinians to curb attacks.

Palestinian violence has tailed off somewhat since U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq on March 20, while Israel has cut back on its raids against Islamic militants in Gaza.

Against this backdrop, security officers from Gaza met their Israeli counterparts recently for the first time in months, Palestinian Major General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh told Reuters.

But he said the meeting did not signify resumption of long-suspended security cooperation talks.

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