Gunmen and soldiers shot in Gaza

Three Palestinian gunmen breached defences around an Israeli settlement in Gaza and killed three soldiers before being shot dead yesterday, exacting the worst toll on Israel's forces in occupied territory in four months.

Troops killed two of the militants in a gunfight just after dawn on the fringes of the isolated Morag settlement, and the third hours later. The attack came a day after a woman suicide bomber killed two policemen in Jerusalem.