GAZA CITY, 29 April 2007 — Israeli soldiers shot dead three Hamas fighters and critically wounded a fourth near Gaza’s border fence with Israel yesterday in what the army said was a thwarted attack, casting fresh doubt on a shaky cease-fire.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the Islamist group, which leads a Palestinian unity government, has the right to respond to the deaths by “all means available.” He called the incident a violation of the five-month-old Gaza cease-fire, which all but collapsed earlier this week when Hamas’ armed wing started firing rockets into Israel.

An Israeli Army spokeswoman confirmed the incident near the border fence in central Gaza that killed the three Hamas fighters. The spokeswoman said the soldiers had opened fire on four Palestinians as they were placing explosive devices.

Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the Hamas armed wing, said the four fighters were on a “jihadist mission when the Zionist enemy opened fire on them.” “The occupation has no interest in calm and from our side we say there is no calm for free. The Zionist enemy will be punished for their crimes,” Abu Ubaida said.

In a separate incident in southern Gaza, a Palestinian civilian was killed on Friday night by what local medics and residents said was an Israeli tank shell. The Hamas armed wing broke the cease-fire earlier this week by firing rockets into Israel in response to the killing of nine Palestinians by Israeli forces last weekend.

Hamas later agreed to resume the cease-fire, halting rocket attacks, though other groups have not completely stopped the attacks. “This is the right of Palestine; it has the right to defend itself, and there were nine martyrs in one day, and violations that must be responded to,” Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told reporters in Cairo.

Egypt and the Palestinians warned of the explosive situation in the impoverished Palestinian territories, which are struggling against a devastating economic and political blockade.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on how to lift the aid boycott and end the deadly violence in the Gaza Strip. The two discussed “the situation on the Palestinian front and the explosive security situation in the Gaza Strip,” the official MENA news agency said, after four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the territory.

Abbas vowed to restore order, saying “the only way to stop this aggression is to return to a complete calm in Gaza, then in the West Bank,” MENA reported. “This had been agreed, but unfortunately it was violated by Israel and also by the Palestinian side, leading to this escalation,” Abbas said.

On Friday, he met Meshaal in Cairo for a rare meeting, their first since the Palestinian unity government took office in March.

Israel is to confiscate 23 hectares (57 acres) of Palestinian farmland in the occupied West Bank for its controversial security wall, according to a military order seen by AFP yesterday. The army on Friday told the village council in Bardaleh, north of the city of Jericho, that the land would be confiscated “for security reasons” in order to extend the wall.

Those who own or use the land are invited to apply for compensation, said the order a copy of which was given to AFP by Bardaleh council. The Israeli Army declined to comment on the seizure, but a senior Palestinian official criticized it.

“We strongly condemn this decision and we call on Israel to cancel it immediately,” said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. Israel says the 700-kilometer-long wall, made up of concrete walls and razor wire fences, is necessary to protect the Jewish state against terrorists.

Mohammed Mar’i adds from Ramallah: The Winograd Committee’s pending report on the Israeli failures of last summer’s Lebanon war will censure Prime Minister Ehud Olmert but will not call on Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz to resign, Israeli television Channel 10 reported late Friday. According to the report, Olmert acted in a “hasty” manner.

Channel 10 quoted a leaked copy of the Winograd Commission report, which is due out tomorrow, as criticizing Olmert for “misguided and rash judgment” in launching the July-August war against Hezbollah. The 320-page report suggests no concrete recommendations for how the subjects of the report should be dealt with.

In the seventh chapter, entitled “Conclusions and Lessons,” the report outlines a series of harsh criticisms toward Israeli political leaders examined by the Committee.