Jerusalem: Israeli forces killed two Palestinians early September 26 as the Islamic group Hamas launched one of its biggest rocket raids on Southern Israel, hitting an industrial zone with three home-made missiles, and Israel warned of increasing attacks ahead of a US strike on Iraq.

The violence came as Israel's siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters in Ramallah moved into its second week with no end in sight, after Israel ignored US and UN calls to pull back.

The Army insists that Arafat hand over some 20 men among the 250 people pinned down inside the battered building with him, a move the veteran leader's aides have described as "political suicide".

An Israeli military source said one of the Palestinians killed was a gunman trying to infiltrate the Alei Sinai settlement in the Northern Gaza Strip.

"A Kalashnikov assault rifle, grenades and magazines were found by his body," the sources said, adding that troops were hunting another armed man in the same area.

In the Northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian Mahmud Idris, 52, was killed at dawn by Israeli troops who entered the Western sector of the town, a Palestinian security source said, giving no further details.

The deaths brought to 2,531 the number of people killed as a direct result of the Palestinian uprising which broke out two years ago, including 1,867 Palestinians and 613 Israelis. The remainder were foreign citizens.

The latest killings came as Hamas renewed its attacks with its home-made Qassam rockets, an inaccurate short-range copy of the Katyusha fired blind at a target.

The rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit an industrial zone in the Negev Desert late September 25, Israeli public television said.