Israel foils settlement attack

Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen trying to slip into a Jewish settlement yesterday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared to go to Washington to win US approval for a unilateral Gaza pullout.

The Netzarim settlement the three militants intended to hit is among the 20 Jewish enclaves in Gaza that Mr Sharon wants to evacuate under a plan for a unilateral "disengagement" from years of violence.

Palestinians say the plan is a ruse to help Israel annex the lands of larger West Bank settlement clusters in the future.

Mr Sharon was to fly to Washington later yesterday for a White House meeting with President George W. Bush at which Israeli sources said they expect a deal ensuring Israel would not have to cede all of the West Bank in any future peace deal with Palestinians.

In return Israel would pullout from Gaza, seized along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. Mr Sharon faces revolt from pro-settler nationalists in his party and wants guarantees from Mr Bush to overcome it.

US sources have said "understandings" on key aspects of Mr Sharon's unilateral plan had been struck, without elaborating.

A joint statement by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah militant groups, claiming responsibility for the attempt to assault Netzarim, said two of three gunmen involved were killed and gave their names. The other militant escaped, it said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers guarding Netzarim shot dead one militant as he was breaking through its perimeter fence and two more spotted behind him a moment later, killing one and wounding the other, who escaped.

Some 7,500 Jewish settlers in Gaza live among 1.3 million impoverished Palestinians and have been frequent targets of a Palestinian uprising since 2000.