Three Palestinians and one Israeli were killed when two Palestinian suicide bombers, including a woman, blew themselves up at an Israeli army checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, Israel Radio reported on Thursday.

Previous reports only said one Israeli was killed in the attack.

Three other Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded in the blast, the sources said.

Seven Palestinians including a women and a child were lightly wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinians waiting at the checkpoint following the bombings.

Palestinian witnesses said they saw a woman blew herself up at around 9:30 AM (07:30 GMT) at the Israeli army checkpoint near the village of Faron close to two Jewish settlements of Shavi Shormon and Inav south of Tulkarem.

Upon the heel of the bombing, a Palestinian man blew himself up as an Israeli army jeep was approaching the checkpoint, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding three others aboard.  

The Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack, the al-Arabiya channel said.

Israeli forces and ambulances rushed to the scene and a full closure was imposed on the area that prohibited Palestinian residents there from traveling, Palestinian security sources said.

The attacks came against a back drop of intensified Israeli efforts to enforce a buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets on Israel.

Israeli artillery shells and air strikes pounded northern Gazalate Wednesday and early Thursday, killing one Palestinian militant and a teenager.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2005)