EREZ BORDER CROSSING, March 6: At least six Palestinians were killed on Saturday during a suicide bombing and shooting attack on Israeli soldiers at the main Israel-Gaza border crossing.

A Hamas official said it had carried out the operation along with Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, and Islamic Jihad.

Such cooperation among the three groups, which have ignored Palestinian Authority calls for a ceasefire with Israel, is likely to fuel US fears that Israel's threatened unilateral pullback in Gaza could fuel anarchy in the area.

Brigadier-General Gadi Shamni, commander of Israeli forces in northern Gaza, said the incident began when a Palestinian car exploded at the heavily guarded Erez crossing.

Hamas called it a suicide bombing and said the driver was killed. Gen Shamni said no Israelis were hurt.

Soon afterwards, two jeeps painted in Israeli army colours raced to the scene, as if they were responding to the blast, and a Palestinian man in the lead vehicle began firing at Israeli soldiers, who shot him and its driver dead, Gen Shamni said.

The second jeep, also disguised as an Israeli army vehicle, then exploded near a Palestinian police post about 100 metres away, killing the driver, the general said.

Hospital officials said at least two other Palestinians, both policemen, were killed and some 15 wounded.

"It's possible the Palestinian (policemen) tried to stop the jeep and the driver blew himself up or something malfunctioned," the Israeli official said. Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces had fired at the vehicle.

The use of fake army jeeps - Gen Shamni said the militants had used an unarmoured civilian version of the military's "Sufa" vehicle - was a new tactic in the Palestinian uprising.

ECONOMIC LIFELINE: The incident at the flashpoint frontier erupted three days after an Israeli missile strike killed three Hamas militants in Gaza, which like the West Bank was sealed off by Israel on Thursday in a security alert for the Jewish holiday of Purim.-Reuters