Army kills two Israelis by mistake in W.Bank

Israeli soldiers and a helicopter gunship shot dead two Israeli armed guards in the West Bank yesterday after mistaking them for Palestinian gunmen, the army said.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli special forces killed five armed Palestinians in a swoop on their hideout, military sources and witnesses said.

The army said the shooting of the Israeli guards -- which drew criticism from Israel's leading human rights group -- began when troops at Pnei Hever settlement, southeast of the city of Hebron, spotted a suspicious car approaching from around a hill.

"The unit ordered the car to stop, and after identifying the occupant as armed, shot and killed him," an army statement said. "After hearing the gunfire, a second armed man ran off (from the hill). He was shot dead by a helicopter gunship."

The army said its troops had been on high alert for a "terrorist attack" by Palestinian gunmen, who have carried out a spate of shootings in the area over recent days, including the killing of two Jewish settlers and a soldier.

Israeli television footage from Pnei Hever showed the windscreen and bonnet of the car peppered with bullet holes.

"Perhaps this tragedy will bring home to Israelis the laxity of the army's open-fire regulations in the territories," said Lior Yavne, spokesman for the Israeli rights group B'Tselem.

The army insists its soldiers follow strict rules of engagement that include spoken challenges and warning shots when confronting suspects. Citing witnesses, Israeli media said the soldiers had indeed ordered the men to stop -- but in Arabic.

According to Channel 2 television, before he was killed the second man called police to report that Palestinians disguised as soldiers had ambushed him and his partner.

Military sources said the two men worked as security guards at a privately owned antenna on the hill.

The army expressed regret at the incident and said it was investigating.

In the village of Tamoun, south of the Palestinian-ruled city of Jenin, residents said five local militants had been killed in exchanges of fire with Israeli troops. Two other Palestinians were wounded and arrested, residents said.

An Israeli military source said the clash erupted as special forces raided a house serving as the militants' hideout.

"We launched the mission knowing the terrorists were planning an attack. As our troops approached their hideout, they came under fire and killed the terrorists," the source said. The army did not immediately comment on any arrests at the scene.

The army said it had arrested 11 "terror suspects" in overnight swoops. Israeli engineers also demolished the family homes of three Palestinian militants in the West Bank, a punitive measure which Israel maintains deters attacks.

Palestinian witnesses confirmed that the houses belonged to two members of the militant group Islamic Jihad and another from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

Such house demolitions have drawn condemnation from international human rights groups and Palestinian officials.

"Israel is continuing its policy of collective punishment and state-sponsored terrorism," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters.