Israeli soldiers kill gunman in Gaza - medics

GAZA, May 29 (Reuters) Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian gunmen along the Gaza-Israel border today, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops arrested two Palestinian militants who planned to carry out a suicide bombing in the Jerusalem area today, the army said.

The Gaza killing was the latest incident in near daily violence between the Israeli army and militants since Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last September.

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a coalition of Palestinian militants, confirmed that one of its gunmen was killed along the Gaza frontier.

''Our hero was martyred in a shootout with Zionist forces near the border in northern Gaza,'' the PRC said in a statement.

Describing the incident in the West Bank, Lt Colonel Arik Chen, an Israeli army commander, said his forces arrested two Palestinian militants carrying a suicide bomber's explosive belt hidden in a bag.

''One of them was the suicide bomber and the other was an accomplice,'' Chen told Reuters.

Palestinian suicide bombers have killed hundreds of people in attacks since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000. In the most recent incident, a suicide bomber killed 10 people at a fast food outlet in Tel Aviv on April 17.

REUTERS SHB PM1618