Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered the army to ease restrictions on Palestinians amid increasing signs of popular resistance to Israel’s five-week occupation of major West Bank towns.

At least five Palestinian children have died in an apparent Israeli rocket attack on a car in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

An Islamic militant leader’s pick-up truck was hit by what appeared to be an Israeli rocket in the West Bank today, killing two of his children and seriously wounding three people.