Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded in the Gaza Strip Thursday evening when a Palestinian militant attacked their jeep.

The Palestinian threw hand grenades and shot at the IDF vehicle near an outpost south of the Gush Katif-Kissufim road in the Gaza Strip, lightly wounding two Givati Brigade infantry soldiers before the soldiers returned fire.

The militant was killed by the soldiers´ return fire.

The two wounded soldiers were evacuated by Israel Air Force helicopter to hospital.

The attack came as Palestinian and Israeli officials prepared for a regional summit next week, where they hoped to sign a formal cease- fire.

Earlier on Thursday afternoon, IDF troops stationed at the Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus arrested a 16-year-old Palestinian boy carrying an explosives belt in a bag.

The bag also contained an improvised gun and 20 bullets. The boy, identified as Mahmoud Tabouq, told troops he was carrying the explosives belt for a suicide attack, an IDF source said.

Palestinian militant groups made no immediate comment.

During the past several months, troops have caught a number of Palestinian youth attempting to smuggle explosives through the checkpoint.

In a separate incidents, IDF forces detained two Palestinian men with a bag holding explosives and grenades, Army Radio reported.

The two were stopped near the West Bank settlement of Avney Hefetz, southeast of Tul Karm.

Meanwhile, security forces lowered the high state of alert declared in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon. Earlier, security services received concrete intelligence warnings that a terrorist had infiltrated the capital city.

According the information received by police, the terrorist was likely located in East Jerusalem.

Large numbers of police officers and Israel Defense Forces troops poured into Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

Forces were focusing on their searches in the southern and eastern sections of the city in an effort to pinpoint the location of the terrorist and his assistant.

Checkpoints were placed around the city.

This was the first warning of a terrorist infiltration in Jerusalem in several weeks. (© Copyright 2004 Haaretz. 02/03/05)