Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank killed at least 10 suspected Islamic activists in two gun battles, one of them Friday morning in the battle-scarred Jenin refugee camp. Backed by helicopter gunships and tanks, Israeli occupation troops killed at least five resistance men from the Islamic Jihad group in a hideout in the camp. The occupation army said a sixth person was killed, but Palestinians said the man was wounded and escaped.

The raid began just after daybreak Friday, with armored vehicles surrounding the house. Palestinians fired from the roof and from an adjacent alley, the occupation army said. Occupation troops returned fire, killing the men.

The activists had been standing watch over the camp throughout the night and had just returned to their hideout for breakfast and sleep when Israeli occupation forces surrounded them, said a local Islamic Jihad leader, Sheik Bassam Saedi.

As part of a wide-ranging assault aimed a crushing violent Palestinian groups around the West Bank last April, Israeli occupation forces flattened the center of the camp, and battles there killed 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli occupation soldiers.

Earlier, on Thursday night, another Israeli occupation force entered the nearby village of Tamoun to search for activists , and five Palestinians were killed in exchanges of fire.

The occupation army said at least three were from the Islamic Hamas group and were high on a list of fugitives.

Occupation troops searching their hide-out turned up a belt of explosives, apparently to be worn by a resistance bomber.

In both operations, occupation soldiers also found M-16 and Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition stashed away, the occupation army said.

Both Islamic groups have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in scores of resistance bombings and other attacks in more than 29 months of fighting.

Earlier Thursday, Israeli occupation troops hunted for activists in remote hills of the southern West Bank. Two Israelis were mistakenly killed by a hail of gunfire and a missile fired by a helicopter.

Danny Yatom, an opposition lawmaker from the Labor Party, said the event showed occupation soldiers use excessive force.

"The fact that the car was hit with 200 bullets, when there was only one person in the vehicle - even if he was suspected of being a terrorist - shows that there may have been an exaggerated use of fire," he told Occupation army Radio Friday.

The two men who were killed, ages 22 and 23, were private guards keeping watch over a mobile phone antenna on a hill near the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Their white station wagon, which had red stickers in Hebrew with the words "security" on the sides and hood, was riddled with dozens of bullets.

One man was outside the car when he was killed by a helicopter-fired missile, military officials said.

The shooting around midday came after Israeli occupation forces in the area received warnings that Palestinian resistance men were planning to attack the nearby Jewish settlement of Pnei Hever, the occupation army said.

Elite occupation troops lying in wait for armed Palestinians were told by a lookout post that a resistance man had been spotted running toward a white car parked on a deserted hillside, Israeli occupation army reporters said.

The man did not heed a call by occupation soldiers to stop, the occupation army said.

Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski attributed the deaths to "an operational failure by the troops observing the area" from a nearby hill.

The firing on the two guards, one of them an Israeli occupation army officer on leave, raised questions about the occupation army's rules of engagement in Palestinian areas.

"We've said for a long time that the firing orders are too lax," said Lior Yavne, a spokesman for B'Tselem, an Israeli group that monitors Israeli human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip . "The soldiers see suspicious figures, fire first and ask questions later."

Yavne said dozens of unarmed Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation army fire in the past 29 months of fighting, including those driving or walking near Israeli occupation army checkpoints.

Maj. Sharon Feingold, an Israeli occupation army spokeswoman, said occupation soldiers were on high alert at the time because of specific warnings about gunmen in the area.

"This was a tragic mistake, as in other incidents in which innocent people are killed on either side," she said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli police officers stand guard at the scene where Israeli occupation forces backed by a helicopter gunship mistakenly shot and killed two Israelis they believed to be Palestinian resistance men , near Pnei Hever, just southeast of the West Bank town of Hebron, Wednesday, March 13, 2003. When the shooting occured, Israeli occupation forces had been scouring the area because of intelligence warnings that Palestinians were planning an attack in the area, the occupation army said in a statement. The sign in the door of the car reads: 'Security Service.' (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)