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

An Israeli was killed and three othersinjured tonight when Palestinian gunmen attacked a West Bank settlement. One of the gunmen was shot and killed.

Israeli police and troops have evicted about 200 Israelis who set up an illegal settlement at the spot where Palestinian gunmen last month killed 12 soldiers and settlers.

Palestinian security forces were accused of supplying arms to militant groups to attack Israelis, after anti-tank missiles, grenades, a bomb laboratory and a weapons workshop were found in a raid on a security compound in Gaza.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came under pressure from hard-liners in his right-wing government yesterday for a tougher response to a Palestinian ambush that killed 12 soldiers and security men in Hebron.

Israeli troops backed by tanks retook all of Hebron today – blindfolding Palestinian suspects and herding them into army buses – after gunmen lured security forces into a dead-end alley and killed 12 with a barrage of bullets and grenades.

Five Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops in two separate incidents.

Two Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian security official have died in the latest round of violence in Israel.

Several people were injured by a bomb that exploded next to an Israeli bus carrying students through the West Bank today.