Deadly violence continues in Mideast

? In a series of deadly episodes Saturday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian gunmen killed a pregnant woman and two others at an Israeli settlement, and at least six armed Palestinians died two in an attack on another settlement.

Israeli authorities reported these incidents Saturday:

About 3 a.m., two Palestinians, one wearing an Israeli army uniform, fired automatic rifles at a cluster of 15 mobile homes just outside the fenced Jewish settlement of Karmei Tsur in the West Bank south of Jerusalem.

A young woman nine months pregnant and her husband, an off-duty soldier, were killed, Israeli television said. An Israeli soldier in uniform also died and four other Israelis were wounded, the army said. Soldiers killed one gunman, but the second escaped to the nearby Palestinian village of Halhoul.

Three gunmen opened fire on homes on the outskirts of the Yizhak settlement in the northern West Bank. Four Israelis were injured, two seriously, military officials said. Soldiers shot and killed at least two of the gunmen, officials said on condition of anonymity.

Two armed men were spotted swimming in the Mediterranean Sea near the Jewish coastal settlement of Dugit and were shot dead by soldiers, the army said.

The bodies of two Palestinians were found after an explosion went off along the fence that separates Gaza and Israel, the army said. It said the men were carrying bombs.