Israeli army found a weapon cache during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian sources said on Thursday.

Three rifles, a Kalashnikov, pistols and munitions were found hidden in a house in Nablus during Israeli army's house-to-house search after midnight, the sources said.

The army arrested nine Palestinians in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho and Qalqilya during the raids, the Palestinian sources said. The Israeli sources said the nine were wanted by security and intelligence services.

The Israeli troops carry out arrests among the Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank on daily basis.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants, meanwhile, fired at Israeli forces which rolled for few hundred meters in Palestinian-controlled areas in northern and central Gaza Strip.

Israeli sources said the troops returned fire at the attackers and there were no casualties in both sides.

In other incidents, a Palestinian died in an accident inside an underground smuggling tunnel in Rafah town, medical sources said.

The man was suffocated by a rope used to pull goods from the Egyptian side of the tunnel, the sources said.

On Wednesday, another Palestinian working in a tunnel was killed when the tunnel collapsed.

The tunnels are used to smuggle food, fuel, electronics and various goods to the Gaza Strip which was sealed off by Israel in June 2007.

A tightening Egyptian crack down against contraband, including bombing of the tunnels, contributed to the death toll among the smugglers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2009)