BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed two people in a raid on a Gaza Strip town and wounded four others in a helicopter gunship attack nearby, Palestinian sources said on Sunday.

The helicopter fired two missiles at a car carrying three members of the Islamic Jihad organization between the town of Beit Lahiya and Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, injuring one of them and three bystanders, Palestinian security sources said.

The security sources said the men leapt out of the vehicle as the Apache helicopter struck. The car´s driver was wounded in the attack. A Palestinian youth, a police officer and a third bystander were also hurt, the sources said.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment on the helicopter strike, a tactic the military has used in the past to kill militants accused of suicide bombings in a two-year-old Palestinian uprising.

The militant Islamic Jihad group said one of its field commanders, who was in the vehicle, was apparently the target of the attack but was unhurt. It named him as Mukaled Hamid but did not name the other men in the car.

FAMILY HOMES RAZED

Israeli troops earlier killed two people and destroyed a three-story apartment building in a raid on Beit Lahiya to raze family homes of militants, witnesses said.

Residents said 30 armored vehicles, backed by three helicopter gunships, rumbled into the town late on Saturday and cut it off from Gaza City, seven km (four miles) away, before leaving about three hours later.

Hospital officials said a 32-year-old man was shot dead and 20 others were wounded in the town, where gunmen crouched in graffiti-covered alleyways exchanged fire with Israeli forces. Unarmed Palestinians cheered on the gunmen from a distance.

Army engineers blew up the family homes of three Islamic militants, one of them wanted since 1996 for a Tel Aviv bus suicide bombing that killed 20 people. Local residents said two of the men belonged to Hamas and the third to Islamic Jihad.

The body of an elderly Palestinian was found under the rubble of one of the three homes demolished by the Israeli forces, residents said.

"We do everything to make sure that the houses are empty of people, and we take several steps to do it. We call out on loudspeakers, then search within the building to make sure there is no one inside," army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal said.

"At the end of the search, we call out again to tell any remaining occupants to leave, and only then is the house destroyed. The whole painstaking procedure takes up to two or three hours."

Residents speculated the dead man had not heard the army call over loudspeakers for people to vacate their homes.

Israel has launched frequent incursions into Palestinian-ruled areas in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the uprising, with the stated aim of striking militants behind attacks on Israelis.

At least 1,688 Palestinians and 668 Israelis have been killed since the revolt began after peace talks stalled.

FATAH TO RESUME TALKS WITH HAMAS

A senior official of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat´s Fatah faction said the group would resume talks with Hamas in Cairo in about two weeks.

Fatah and Hamas met in the Egyptian capital last month to discuss a possible halt to Hamas suicide bombings in Israel. Palestinian sources said the negotiations ended without any agreement other than to meet again.

The Fatah official said the faction would keep trying to persuade Hamas to halt "resistance operations" inside Israel and would continue discussions on the possibility of Hamas participation in Palestinian elections slated for January.

Hamas officials were not immediately available to comment.

Meanwhile, Israeli police halted buses traveling on a route in northern Israel which has been hit several times by Palestinian suicide bombers in the past few months.

The decision was taken following warnings that Palestinian militants were planning an imminent attack in the area.

Using flares to light up the night sky, security forces scoured fields separating Israel from the West Bank following reports militants had infiltrated into the Jewish state. (© Reuters 2002 12/01/02)