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The militant group Hamas said it would avenge the Israeli army's killing of four Palestinians in a tank attack which Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called a crime aimed at sabotaging peace efforts.
The Israeli army was ordered to investigate the death of four members of one family in the Gaza Strip coastal village of Sheikh Ijleen, and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer expressed regret.
Israeli fears of fighting on a second front flared when Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas fired artillery rounds and anti-tank missiles at Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms border zone, drawing retaliatory Israeli fire.
The army said three Israeli soldiers were wounded.
The Gaza raids and border fire coincided with a visit by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, the first time in weeks a U.S. envoy has met Israeli and Palestinian officials in the region to discuss ways to restore calm.
Ben-Eliezer and Satterfield discussed reforms in the Palestinian Authority, a defense ministry statement said.
After the Gaza Strip attack, thousands of people attended a rally for Hamas, which has killed scores of Israelis in suicide attacks in the 23-month uprising against occupation.
"The Israeli massacres, assassinations, arrests, house demolitions and deportations will increase the determination of this people to proceed in the path of resistance and jihad," Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said in a message read out at the rally by an aide because he was too ill to attend in person.
The Israelis and Palestinians agreed on a "Gaza-Bethlehem First" plan last week under which Israel was to ease its military clampdown in the Gaza Strip and West Bank city in return for Palestinian security forces deploying to ensure calm.
Israeli tank rounds sprayed thousands of dart-like flechettes, Palestinian doctors said, in an attack which frayed the security deal meant to lay the groundwork for a cease-fire.
They killed Ruwaida Al-Hajeen, 55, her sons, Ashraf, 23, and Nihad, 17, and a cousin, Mohammed, 20.
An army spokesman said troops guarding Netzarim opened fire when they saw "suspicious figures" crawling in the direction of the Jewish settlement. Arafat said in a statement it was "a deliberate crime" to sabotage peace efforts.
Netzarim and other settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have become frequent targets for Palestinian militants.
Israeli troops remain in six West Bank cities and nearby towns they reoccupied after a spate of suicide bombings in June.
At least 1,517 Palestinians and 589 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began after peace talks froze.
(China Daily August 30, 2002)
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