Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has accused Israel of committing a "deliberate crime" and attempting to sabotage Middle East peace efforts, after an attack on a village in the Gaza Strip early on Thursday which killed four Palestinians.
"This is an unforgivable crime that is aimed at delaying peace efforts," Mr Arafat said of the attack, in which a 50-year-old mother and her sons died.

His response followed warnings from the Islamic militant organisation Hamas that it would avenge the killings with renewed attacks against Israeli civilians.

The Palestinian side has also cancelled the latest round of security talks scheduled for later on Thursday between Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzak al-Yahya.

The talks are aimed at implementing a plan for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza in return for Palestinian security guarantees.

Army investigation

Israel expressed regret for the attack and the deaths of "Palestinian innocents".

"[Mr] Ben-Eliezer expresses regret at the incident in which Palestinian innocents in the Gaza Strip were killed as a result of Israeli army fire," the Israeli statement said.
The ministry also said that Mr Ben-Eliezer had ordered the army to "present him forthwith with its findings on the incident and conclusions for the future."

In a raid before dawn on Thursday, Israeli tanks shelled two houses in a Bedouin encampment located in the Sheikh Ajlin area near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

Another four people were wounded in the attack, which came as Israel deployed land, sea and air forces to foil what it said was a Palestinian attempt to smuggle arms into Gaza by sea.

'Cold blood'

Mr Arafat said in a statement that the attack was aimed against efforts to achieve a ceasefire by the Quartet Committee of European Union, Russian, US and UN representatives, as well as the peace initiative adopted by the Arab summit in Beirut.


He said the attack showed the "true intentions" of those who ordered such operations.

Meanwhile a senior leader of Hamas, a group responsible for many suicide attacks on Israeli targets, said the killings would mean retaliation.

"Members of one family were killed in cold blood," Mahmoud al-Zahar told Reuters news agency as he stood beside the bodies of the dead in the morgue of Gaza's main hospital.

"When there are killings of Palestinian civilians, Israel can expect killings of its civilians."


Four people were injured in the tank attack

Thursday's raid south of Gaza City was the deepest incursion into the area since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September, 2000.

Palestinian witnesses said 11 tanks and armoured personnel carriers moved into the village, which was plunged into darkness by a power failure.

Reports from the locality say that ambulances were initially unable to reach the scene of the attack.

Israel said it launched its operation in Gaza following intelligence reports that Palestinians were trying to smuggle arms into the Gaza Strip from the sea.