Israeli helicopter gunships have attacked a building in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a reported mortar attack on a nearby Jewish settlement.

An army spokesman said the building, near the Khan Younis refugee camp, was being used by Palestinians to make weapons including mortar shells.

The helicopter pilots reported direct hits. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The army spokesman said the raid was in retaliation for a mortar attack on Friday on a nearby Jewish settlement, Gadid.

Tit-for-tat violence

Palestinian eyewitnesses confirmed that two Israeli helicopters were involved in the strike on the Khan Younis building.

But some of the eyewitnesses said an electric power plant was hit, plunging the area into darkness.

Click here for a map of Gaza

It was the latest incident in a pattern of tit-for-tat violence since the Palestinians launched their uprising against Israeli occupation 10 months ago.

On Friday, Israeli tanks shelled Palestinian security posts near the West Bank town of Ramallah following the killing of a 17-year-old Israeli.

Two police stations in Surda and a checkpoint in Beitunia run by Force 17, a Palestinian elite police unit, were hit.

Earlier an Israeli teenager was shot dead in an apparent drive-by shooting near the entrance to the Jewish settlement of Givat Zeev, just north of Jerusalem.

Fragile ceasefire

A spokesman for Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said the killing showed that the Palestinians had decided to continue their campaign of terror.

A BBC correspondent in Jerusalem says there is a fear that while diplomatic efforts are continuing to underpin an US-negotiated ceasefire, extremists on both sides are continuing to determine what happens on the ground.

Overall, more than 600 people have been killed in the violence - about 500 of them Palestinians.

---

Click here to return