Woman killed in Gaza shelling

PALESTINIAN militants shelled an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing one woman and wounding another.

In response, Israeli tanks opened fire on the nearby Palestinian town of Khan Younis, wounding two residents, witnesses said. The Israeli army said it was aiming at the source of the mortar fire.

The violence comes as Israeli forces went on a high alert ahead of the Jewish Yom Kippur holy day.

Two mortars were fired at the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim and one of them scored a direct hit on a house. The women were evacuated to a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba for treatment, but one died of her wounds. The second woman was lightly wounded.

While the Palestinians have fired hundreds of mortars and home-made rockets at Neve Dekalim and nearby settlements during the four years of violence, this was the first fatality.

In June, two Israelis were killed in a rocket attack on the nearby town of Sderot inside of Israel.

The shelling comes a day after Palestinian militants killed three Israeli soldiers in an early morning attack on the Morag settlement. After a protracted gun battle the three attackers were killed by the army.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the army to tighten a closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip as Jews prepared to observe Yom Kippur.

Israel has barred Palestinians from entering Israel for the past two weeks until after the Jewish holiday season, which runs until early October.

In 1973 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel during Yom Kippur, but were eventually pushed back.