One Palestinian, three Israeli soldiers killed

Israeli forces have swept through a West Bank village, killing one man, hours after Palestinians set off a bomb in Gaza.

The explosion destroyed a tank and killed three soldiers.

The Popular Resistance Committees, a combination of Fatah and Hamas militants in Gaza, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group includes members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement who oppose his policies.

Palestinian security forces have tried several times to break up the group, without success.

The leaflet in which the group claimed responsibility for the attack said it was in response to Israel's killing of five Palestinians during an incursion into three towns in Gaza earlier in the week.

In what appears to be a coordinated attack in central Gaza, the bomb detonated near a convoy heading toward a Jewish settlement, damaging an armoured bus.

Following standard procedure, a tank was sent toward the scene, and ran over another bomb.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces went into the village of Saida after midnight to search for suspected militants, a military statement said. In an exchange of gunfire, a Palestinian was killed.