The Israeli army said today it had killed a suspected Palestinian suicide bomber near a major road junction in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement the army said: "Soldiers spotted an armed Palestinian terrorist moving near the Karni-Netzarim junction, and shot and killed him".
It said the man wore an explosives belt and had intended to carry out a suicide attack. He also carried an automatic rifle and an anti-tank missile. Palestinian security officials declined comment.
Israeli police, meanwhile, said they had found the body of a Jewish settler missing for the past 10 days in the West Bank and a Palestinian had confessed to killing him and hiding the corpse in a cave.
Meanwhile in what it called a seasonal gesture the army announced it had lifted its cordon around Bethlehem for continuing Christmas festivities. But the ban on Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat visiting the West Bank town revered as the birthplace of Jesus remained in place.
Palestinian witnesses in Bethlehem said the cordon had been only partly lifted and Palestinian traffic was moving through two of the four Israeli army roadblocks at the town's entrances. Access to Israeli-controlled Jerusalem was still blocked.
Mr Arafat remains confined to the Israeli-blockaded West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israel announced the Bethlehem measure late yesterday after a day of relative peace and Israeli-Palestinian talks on ending 15 months of bloodshed in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.