Israeli forces backed by helicopter gunships swooped on three Gaza refugee camps today after killing four Palestinians who the army said were on their way to attack Jewish settlements.
In a separate incident, police said they killed an armed Palestinian who broke into a home in the Israeli village of Maor, five km (three miles) from the West Bank. An Israeli couple in the house escaped when the intruder's rifle jammed.
The army said it sent infantry and armour backed by assault helicopters, into the Nusairat, Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip. The raids lasted several hours.
The camps are strongholds of Palestinian militants who have waged a campaign of suicide bombings and ambush shootings as part of an uprising for a Palestinian state.
Ambulance workers said several Palestinians were wounded. Meanwhile, Israeli guards fired teargas and stun grenades in a large West Bank detention camp today to break up a protest by Palestinian prisoners over alleged mistreatment.
Israeli medics and Palestinian human rights workers said several dozen Palestinians were suffering from teargas inhalation at the camp next to the Israeli army's Ofer base near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"There was a disturbance and an army force at the camp used teargas to disperse the violent demonstration. Now it is over," an Israeli military source said.
Some 700 Palestinians have been detained at the Ofer camp, most of them in connection with violence in a 27-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Mr Khalida Jarrar, from the Palestinian human rights group al-Dameer, said the prisoners had declared a hunger strike on Thursday morning to protest at alleged beatings by camp guards when detainees are taken to a nearby military court. It was not clear how the confrontation began.