BEERSHEBA, Israel - Two Palestinian gunmen sprang from a car and sprayed automatic gunfire at Israelis outside a military base in this southern desert city yesterday, killing two soldiers and seriously wounding five people before the attackers were shot dead by troops.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Palestinian children carrying signs calling for the Liberation of Palestine run from tear gas fired by Israeli troops during minor clashes in the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday.

In apparent retaliation, Israeli warplanes dropped three bombs on the main Palestinian security installation near the Mediterranean coast in Gaza City.

Security officials evacuated the building before the attack, but more than a dozen people were taken to the hospital, most suffering from shock and from cuts caused by broken glass, hospital officials said. Israel did not immediately comment.

The shooting attack in Beersheba came just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returned home from a U.S. visit. During the visit, the Americans said they would press Yasser Arafat to clamp down on militants but turned down Sharon's request to cut contacts with the Palestinian leader.

Also, for the first time in more than 16 months of fighting, Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel from the Gaza Strip, Israel's military said. The rocket landed in a farm field and no one was injured, but Israel said it regards Palestinian use of the weapon as a serious escalation.

Sharon was to meet top security officials at his ranch in the Negev Desert yesterday night to discuss probable retaliation for the shooting and rocket attacks, Israeli television reported. A spokesman for Sharon would not confirm the report.

In the Beersheba attack, the gunmen started shooting with automatic weapons outside a cafe near the gates of the army's southern command headquarters in the center of the city, police said.

Many soldiers were on the streets during their lunch break yesterday afternoon, and they quickly began firing back at the attackers, who were shot dead within minutes, witnesses and officials said.

The seven people shot by the attackers included soldiers and civilians, and two women soldiers died shortly thereafter, according to Israeli officials.

"I was on the street and suddenly the two got out of a car and started firing in all directions," Israeli army Capt. Guy Shaham told Israel Radio. "They were spraying from the hip in all directions."

"I whipped out my gun and started firing back at them," Shaham said, adding that he felled one of the attackers.

The second, wearing a belt of explosives, hid behind a car in a parking lot. He was shot by soldiers as he tried to set off the bomb, witnesses and police said.

No group claimed responsibility for the shooting.

In an initial response to the rocket attack, Israeli tanks entered a Palestinian-controlled area of the Gaza Strip and found three rocket launchers, Israel's Channel Two TV reported.

Two of the rocket launchers had been fired, but one still contained a rocket, the TV said. The rockets were apparently set off by remote control.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have repeatedly fired mortars at Israeli communities in and around Gaza, though these attacks have rarely caused serious damage or injuries.

Israeli officials have warned that the use of the rockets - which are more powerful than mortars and have a longer range - would constitute a new level of fighting and bring a strong reaction.

The attack by warplanes, believed to be F-16s, came several hours after the rocket and shooting attacks and targeted a Palestinian security complex just a few hundred yards from Arafat's Gaza offices. The complex was already badly damaged in previous Israeli air strikes.

The planes circled overhead for several minutes before striking, and Palestinian security officials dashed out of the complex before the bombing began.

The desert city of Beersheba, where the shooting attack occurred, has been comparatively calm during recent fighting but it is relatively close to both the West Bank and Gaza.

Yesterday's attack underscored the vulnerability of such Israeli cities in the current conflict. The main Palestinian cities are blockaded by the army, but there is little serious policing of the Israel-West Bank border itself, which snakes through hundreds of miles of hills, plains, woods and desert.

"We do not know how to hermetically seal the borders of Israel," Israeli police chief Shlomo Aharonishki said when asked whether such attacks can be prevented.

Before dawn yesterday, Israeli troops in tanks briefly entered the West Bank city of Nablus and exchanged heavy fire with Palestinians. The incursion came hours after a Saturday night roadside shooting by a Palestinian killed a 79-year-old Israeli woman and injured her son.

Seven Palestinians were wounded, two seriously, Palestinian hospital officials said. The Israeli military said its forces searched buildings, arresting several Palestinians, and left the city after about two hours.