Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire yesterday, three of them in the southern Gaza Strip as the army continued a major operation on the Egyptian border. Three Palestinians, including a Hamas fighter, were killed by tank fire and 18 others wounded, three of them seriously, in the violence in the border town of Rafah. In the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem, a Palestinian teenager was also shot dead when troops fired on stone-throwers. Sources said troops fired on a group of youths, killing Yehiya Rihan, 17, and wounding five others. Later, an Israeli was slightly wounded by gunfire aimed at a vehicle headed down a road north of Tulkarem. A spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank town of Jenin, claimed responsibility for the shooting. Israeli soldiers also destroyed two homes in Rafah yesterday. UN personnel have said that more than 110 homes have been wrecked during the Israeli campaign in southern Gaza in the past week. Medics said three people were hurt in one explosion, including a child hit by glass shards. The Israeli army said several mortar shells found in a house were detonated, while another home was damaged during a search for a suspected tunnel. Meanwhile, Israel pushed on with its hunt for fighters in the West Bank, seriously wounding two Palestinians during an overnight raid into the refugee camp of Balata, near Nablus, Palestinian sources said. **PHOTO CAPTION*** An Israeli border policeman arrests a Palestinian youth at the entrance to east Jerusalem October 18, 2003. (REUTERS/Mahfouz Abu Turk )