The diplomats were badly shaken by the incident as the small convoy was stopped leaving the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, close to the main Erez crossing with Israel, the sources said.

They said the convoy included representatives of Switzerland, Britain, Greece, Sweden, and Austria.

A Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman said its representative to the Palestinian Authority and a colleague had come under Israeli fire at a Gaza roadblock on Monday but was unhurt.

It said his armored vehicle was clearly marked as a diplomatic car and it was unclear why it was shot at. He was held up for about an hour before being allowed to proceed.

The spokesman said the ministry was looking into the incident and "demands a comprehensive investigation" by Israel.

The Israeli army declined to comment.

Military sources said the army had closed the entrance to Beit Hanoun because of "warnings of attempts by terror organizations" to leave the town.

"There were a number of vehicles in a traffic jam trying to leave Beit Hanoun. Some of the vehicles tried to bypass the roadblock and shots were fired into the air to deter them and restore order. The claim of hits on a diplomatic car is being checked by the army now," one military source said.

The army launched a raid into Beit Hanoun earlier this month, which it said was intended to prevent Palestinian militant groups firing rockets from the town into nearby southern Israel.

The Palestinians have been waging an uprising for an independent state since September 2000.

There have been several incidents in which vehicles of foreign representatives have been shot at since the uprising began.

In the worst such incident, Palestinian militants shot dead two international observers, one Swiss and the other Turkish, in an ambush in March last year near the West Bank city of Hebron.

(China Daily May 27, 2003)