Israeli forces kill 3 in raid

Israeli troops backed by tanks shot dead three Palestinians during a raid on a Gaza Strip refugee camp and also stormed a West Bank refugee camp overnight.

The rapid-action force entered Rafah in the Gaza Strip and opened fire with machine guns, demolishing at least one house and clashing with gunmen before withdrawing five hours later, Palestinian witnesses said.

Palestinian medics reported two of the three people killed were civilians, one of them shot as he tried to escape with his child.

Dozens of Israeli tanks and military vehicles then moved into the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank before dawn, sparking heavy street fighting with local gunmen.

The new raids were launched after Israel's security cabinet stepped up military pressure on Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority following the deaths of 21 Israelis in one of bloodiest weekends of the 17-month conflict.

Early this morning, the Israeli security cabinet announced that it would apply "continuous military pressure on the Palestinian Authority so as to curb Palestinian-terrorism". Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon convened an emergency meeting last night to discuss Israel's response to the succession of attacks by Palestinians, beginning with a suicide bombing on Saturday night that killed nine people and the killing of 10 Israelis in a shooting attack yesterday morning at an Israeli roadblock north of Ramallah. A soldier and a policeman also died in separate incidents.

Mr Sharon is under pressure to make good on his promise to tighten security. He was elected on a promise of peace and security, but his popularity is plunging fast as the violence surges.