The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Nablus

Israeli troops killed two Palestinians at dawn on Tuesday in the West Bank town of Nablus, one of them a senior member of the Islamic Jihad group, the Israeli military said.

Hours earlier, a mortar round fired from northern Gaza landed in Israel, the first reported breach of a truce in and around the Hamas-ruled territory, the army said. It caused no damage.

With the exception of the mortar round, the truce has held as it entered its sixth day on Tuesday, with Israel halting military operations in Gaza and Palestinian militants in the territory ceasing their rocket attacks. The truce does not apply to the occupied West Bank, where Israel says it must keep up military operations to protect its citizens, and many fear an escalation in violence there could jeopardise the agreement.

Palestinian medics and security sources identified the men killed as Tareq Abu Ghali, 24, and Iyad Khanfar, a 21-year-old university student. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed troops had killed the two in an "exchange of fire," saying both were armed and that Abu Ghali was an Islamic Jihad militant wanted for carrying out attacks on Israel.

Islamic Jihad confirmed Abu Ghali was one of its senior members and vowed revenge, saying in a statement that the response "to this righteous blood will be in the heart of the Zionist entity (Israel)." The radical movement, which was responsible for many of the near-daily rocket and mortar attacks launched on southern Israel from Gaza in the months leading up to the truce, did not agree to the ceasefire but had vowed not to violate it.

A spokesman for Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since seizing power there over a year ago, on Tuesday called on all Palestinian factions adhering to the truce to "pressure Israel to halt its crimes in the West Bank." "The resistance in the West Bank has a role in confronting these crimes and we call on the (Palestinian) security services there to allow the resistance to carry out their role in protecting our people from the Zionist attacks," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.

In recent months Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose forces were driven from Gaza during the Hamas takeover, has been taking part in US-backed peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.