Scores of Hamas members were arrested in sweeps by Palestinian security throughout the West Bank overnight after the shooting of four Israelis on the eve of new Middle East peace talks.

Palestinian militants today killed an Israeli hitchhiker, the third Israeli to be killed in the past five days in a flare-up of violence that threatens a truce reached in February.

Three people were killed in a Palestinian shooting attack south of the West Bank city of Hebron today, witnesses and rescue services said.