Four Palestinians, including a university professor and his teenage son, and an elite Israeli commando were killed today in a fierce night-time gun battle in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scrambling to come up with alternatives after his Likud Party overwhelmingly rejected a withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, a government official said today.

Israeli troops raided a Gaza Strip town and a refugee camp today, killing a gunman and an apparent bystander and destroying several alleged weapon workshops.

ISRAELI troops blew up two apartment buildings in a Gaza Strip refugee camp yesterday, just hours after undercover forces killed the brother of a radical Palestinian leader during an arrest raid in the West Bank.

The Israeli army has killed at least 28 Palestinians after raiding refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip throughout the day.

Five Palestinian children, aged between seven and 14, were killed in a Gaza Strip blast today after one of them hit an unexploded Israeli tank shell as they walked to school.

Two pupils of a Palestinian primary school were killed today in an explosion at a refugee camp.

An Israeli motorist was killed in a shooting ambush in the West Bank today, as Israeli and Palestinian security commanders prepared for talks on the implementation of a US-sponsored ceasefire plan.