The Palestinian Authority is calling for an investigation into Israel's killing of three teenagers, whom Palestinian doctors say were tortured to death.

The Israeli army has denied the charge, saying it killed three knife-wielding "terrorists" with tank fire on Sunday, when they approached a military vehicle at twilight in the northern Gaza Strip.

It turned over the bodies of Mohammad al-Madhoun, Mohammad Lubad and Ahmed Banat, aged 16 and 17, today.

Palestinian public security chief Major-General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh says the three, who relatives say were going to visit a friend, were "ambushed and killed in cold blood".

"At least two were tortured alive," he said.

A Reuters correspondent who saw the corpses says one of their heads was completely crushed and a leg was severed from near the knee.

The corpses had lacerations and burn marks.

Muawiyah Hassanein, director of the casualty department at Shifa Hospital, says autopsies confirm the boys were tortured.

He would not say how pathologists were able to determine torture was the cause of death.

The three Gazan teenagers, killed on Sunday by tank fire when IDF troops suspected they were on their way to a terrorist raid on a settlement in the Beit Lahiya area, were buried yesterday in Gaza.

The burials took place after the army returned the bodies late Wednesday night following complaints by the teens' families and human rights groups. The three, aged 15 to 17 were killed after an IDF force entered the agricultural area of Beit Lahiya, taking over what had formerly been a Palestinian police position.

The IDF first reported the three opened fire on the soldiers, and then the IDF said the soldiers opened fire first, suspecting they were trying to reach a nearby settlement. The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights charged that the soldiers opened fire without first establishing the identity of the three, whose parents said they were on their way to visit friends. The IDF denies the charges.

A Voice of Palestine report claimed that various organs had been removed from the bodies of the three, but the Palestinian Center for Human Rights statement concerning the case of the three made no mention of that report.

Link to website of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign:

And the PA have never told lies before have they? I thought indy meadia did not approve of the basic bullshit stories told by either side. This story goes along with the "Anthrax Pigs" "exploding vegetables" and my favourite "rabid Palestinian biting dogs" that the PA has also spread. Why does someone not ask Arafat why he is still in Palestine when he could have gone back to Egypt where he is from? Is it a) You would be shot
b) he doesn't like to talk about it
c) There's money in innocents
kiling other innocents?

So do you oppose an enquiry into this incident?