Also Monday, two teen-age Palestinian rock-throwers were killed by Israeli army fire in a clash in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. A third Palestinian, wounded Saturday in Gaza, died Monday in an Israeli hospital. He was Ahmed Dahlan, 17, a nephew of Mohammed Dahlan, head of Palestinian preventive security in Gaza.
Two of the Israeli vehicles were ambushed Monday afternoon between the Jewish settlements of Ofra and Shilo in the West Bank. An Israeli woman driving a civilian car was killed in one shooting. Two soldiers were killed in the second attack, on an army bus escorting settler cars, the army said.
The fourth Israeli victim was a driver whose truck was ambushed later near Kissufim in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak condemned the attacks as a violation of the understandings reached at the Sharm el-Sheik summit on halting the violence. ``The prime minister sees as very grave the violation of agreements by the Palestinian Authority,'' his aide Gilead Sher told reporters.
Barak, who is in the United States, spoke on the telephone with the acting prime minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and with army chief of staff Shaul Mofaz and ``instructed them on what steps are to be taken,'' Sher said.
In nearly seven weeks of fighting, Palestinian gunmen have repeatedly fired on Israeli targets, though usually at night and from Palestinian-controlled territory. Two of Monday's ambushes were carried out in daylight in Israeli-run areas of the West Bank. The attacks appeared to have been carefully timed and amount to an escalation by the Palestinians.
The commander of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti, on Monday called for transferring the conflict from Palestinian areas to Israeli-controlled parts of the West Bank this week to mark Wednesday's 12-year anniversary of a symbolic Palestinian statehood declaration.
Barghouti said the Palestinians would have special activities Wednesday to mark ``popular Palestinian sovereignty'' in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Monday's seven deaths brought to at least 205 the number of people killed since Sept. 28. The vast majority of the victims have been Palestinians.
An Israeli official warned that the military would stiffen its response to a growing number of Palestinian gunfire attacks against Israeli forces and civilians.
The last few days have been characterized by a dwindling number of mass riots with youths throwing rocks and firebombs at Israeli soldiers, but a marked increase in Palestinian gunfire at Israeli positions.
The gunfire comes from Arafat's police and security arms, who received weapons in accordance with interim agreements with Israel, and from Tanzim militiamen associated with Arafat's Fatah party.
The Israelis charge that the Tanzim militias are holding weapons illegally and have demanded that they be disarmed. The Palestinians reply that the Tanzim are defending their people against Israeli aggression.
Israeli government spokesman Moshe Fogel said that the increase in Palestinian gunfire means that the conflict is no longer a civil uprising, but ``warfare and terrorism.''
He said that Israeli forces could not continue to be on the ``receiving end of different firing situations and not take the necessary actions.'' Briefing foreign correspondents, Fogel said: ``The rules of engagement have to be adjusted.''
Under the present rules, Israeli soldiers are allowed to open fire only if their lives are in danger or if they are fired upon, though the military says local commanders have a wide range of discretion.
Despite their increasing use of guns, Palestinians charge that the Israelis have been responding to demonstrations with disproportionate force.
