Israeli army arrests five wanter militants suspects and uncovers three explosives labs.

Soldiers, according to the statement, were searching house to house for an explosives lab when they "identified a group of Palestinians who broke the curfew over the city and approached the forces," adding, "The force fired two tank shells in order to deter the crowd from approaching."

Troops also rounded up 30 people, including 10 wanted suspects, and uncovered an explosives lab in a building belonging to Force 17, Mr. Arafat's presidential guard, the army said.

As the cameras panned the room, the voice-over intoned: "As shabby and unthreatening as this room looks now, this was only several hours ago a working explosives lab.

It said it found two explosives labs.

The bureau's explosives lab has a reputation for being slow to definitively identify explosives in bomb cases.

The army said the house held a large explosives lab that contained chemicals, hundreds of pipe bombs, a dozen gas-canister bombs and an antitank charge.

The helmets were different from those used in the explosives lab, being fitted with inhalers.

Also today, Israel announced that it had uncovered an explosives lab inside Israel for the first time, and arrested three Israeli Arabs it said were working for the militant Islamic Jihad movement.

Soldiers killed the Hamas gunmen, and the army demolished the building, saying it contained an explosives lab.