Israeli tanks and bulldozers have entered a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and destroyed a number of buildings.

It is the first such operation since the Palestinian uprising began six months ago.

Witnesses said the tanks fired shells and machine-guns as they advanced into the Khan Yunis camp.

This sparked fierce fighting, in which two Palestinians have been killed and at least 50 wounded, and casts doubt on US efforts to convene a meeting of Israeli and Palestinian security officials.

The Israeli army says the operation was launched to remove a sand embankment which, it says, is used by Palestinian gunmen to shoot at nearby Jewish settlements.

Palestinians responded to the attack by firing mortars on a Jewish settlement.

The Israeli action, on Tuesday night, was opposed by hundreds of armed Palestinian civilians and security forces, witnesses said.

Khan Younis has been the scene of some of the most intense fighting in more than six months of Palestinian uprising.

Loudspeakers in the camp had called for every resident who had a weapon to take it up and defend himself.

The camp's power was cut, cloaking the clashes in nearly total darkness.

The French news agency AFP reported that A Palestinian civilian and a Palestinian police officer died of injuried sustained in the fighting.

Earlier, a Palestinian official had said senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials would meet on Wednesday to try to bring an end to six months of violence in the West Bank and Gaza.

But correspondents say the latest violence has cast doubt on whether the new round of security talks would go ahead.

As part of a separate attempt to revive peace talks, Labour member of the Israeli parliament and former peace negotiator, Yossi Beilin, is expected to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday, according to Israeli radio.

Fierce fighting
The latest fighting follows Tuesday's Israeli rocket attack on the Palestinian naval and military intelligence bases in Beit Lahia, south of Nisanit.

A Palestinian military doctor was killed and at least 17 other people were injured.

About a dozen others were injured in a tank shell attack on a military intelligence base in Deir el-Balah.

The Israeli army said the attack on the Palestinian military intelligence base was in retaliation for three mortar bombs fired at a Jewish settlement in Gaza earlier on Tuesday. No-one was injured in this attack.

Senior Palestinian figures are now referring to the current Israeli attacks as a "state of war".

More than six months of conflict have left more than 460 dead, among them 370-plus Palestinians, about 70 Israeli Jews, and about 20 Arab Israelis. bbc.com, April 11 2001.