Palestinian girl killed at school; death may derail informal cease-fire.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

JERUSALEM _ The Israeli military is investigating claims that its soldiers fatally shot a 10-year-old Palestinian in the face and wounded her 7-year-old schoolmate Monday in their schoolyard in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

The incident prompted a retaliatory barrage of Palestinian mortar rounds against Jewish settlements in the predominantly Palestinian coastal strip. Israel later denied that its soldiers were responsible for the shooting.

The shooting and the mortar attacks, which injured no one, could derail an informal cease-fire brokered by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas last week to end more than four years of bloodshed between the warring sides.

Israel previously had reported a 75 percent reduction in Palestinian attacks in the last few days.

Despite the renewed violence, a meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and former Gaza Security Chief Mohammed Dahlan proceeded Monday. The two were expected to discuss Monday's violence at the meeting, originally called to finalize arrangements to return West Bank cities to Palestinian control.

Those talks followed Abbas' election in early January and an assessment by the Israeli government that Abbas had been making serious efforts to halt Palestinian attacks on Israel.