JERUSALEM — Soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian early Thursday as he tried to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip to carry out a bomb attack, the army said.
The suspect's two accomplices fled when soldiers posted at an Israeli communal farm on the border opened fire, the army said.
The incident followed a night of heavy shooting in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians lobbed five anti-tank grenades at an Israeli army outpost in Gaza on Thursday morning. Troops returned fire, wounding three Palestinians.
On Wednesday night, a 21-year-old Palestinian security officer was killed when Israeli forces fired tank shells at a position of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's presidential guard unit. Four others were injured. The army said three mortar shells had been fired, apparently from the Palestinian post, at the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.
Since the unrest began six months ago, 432 people have been killed, including 355 Palestinians, 52 Israeli Jews and 19 others.
In the West Bank town of Nablus, a Palestinian man injured earlier this week in an explosion at a bomb lab was identified as an activist in Arafat's Fatah faction. In the past, bomb labs were usually run by Hamas, the Islamic militant group responsible for a series of bombing attacks in Israel. Until the start of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Fatah supported peace talks with Israel and largely refrained from carrying out attacks in Israel.
The bomb-making suspect, Dia Dakroury, 23, initially belonged to Hamas but switched to Fatah several years ago, a Palestinian security official said. He was storing explosives on his balcony when a friend threw a cigarette out the window Tuesday night, igniting the brew, the official said.
Dakroury remained in custody Thursday at a Nablus hospital after undergoing surgery. Three others present in the apartment were also arrested.
In Israel, the human rights group Betselem said attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians have increased in the past six months, and that Israeli police have done little to stop the violence or bring suspects to justice.
Betselem said six Palestinians have been killed in violence attributed to settlers. Two of the killings have not been investigated, and suspects in the remaining four cases are free while the investigation continues, Betselem said.
Ephraim Sneh, a former deputy defense minister, acknowledged that more could be done to enforce the law. "There is a small group of extremists ... that are causing problems," Sneh told Israel army radio.