A nine-year-old Jewish girl has been shot and seriously injured while playing outside in the West Bank, Israeli police said today.

Palestinians are claiming one of their leaders, who narrowly escaped death after two missiles landed near his car in the West Bank, was the target of an assassination attempt.

The home of a West Bank security chief was attacked by an Israeli tank today after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended his decision to use war planes against Palestinian targets.

Israelis and Palestinians are mourning their dead after violence erupted all over the West Bank and Gaza on the day Palestinians marked the creation of Israel.

A Palestinian policeman was critically wounded when Israeli tanks and naval patrol boats fired heavy machine-guns at a police station on the Gaza seafront.