Israeli troops on Wednesday assassinated a Fateh activist in the West Bank city of Hebron, while launching new attacks into five Palestinian West Bank villages near Bethlehem before withdrawing half an hour later.
The activist was identified as Emad Abu Snaineh, 25.
He was shot dead near the Israeli-controlled zone in Hebron, witnesses told AFP.
Palestinian officials say that over 40 political leaders and resistance fighters have been killed under Israel's assassination policy, variously called by the euphemisms "targeted killings," "liquidations," "surgical strikes" and "interception operations."
Overnight, the occupation troops made fresh incursions into the five villages before withdrawing half an hour later, said reports.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
"Our forces left the villages of Al Asskara, Harmalah, Avneh, Rakhma and Fourdaif less than half an hour after they entered," an Israeli army spokesman said, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
The Israeli army spokeswoman denied reports that troops had also entered the autonomous Palestinian towns of Beit Sahour and Beit Jala, both near Bethlehem.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had threatened attacks in the Bethlehem area following automatic arms fire from Beit Jala towards the Jewish settlement of Gilo near occupied east Jerusalem early Tuesday, said the paper.
The agancy added that the Israeli army was poised to strike at Beit Jala Tuesday night, but the cabinet held off a ground forces action into the town after the White House termed "provocative" a similar operation in Jenin earlier Tuesday and President Bush called for Israeli "restraint."
Palestinian sources told Israel’s Channel Two television that armed resistance fighters began converging on the center of the town in anticipation of an Israeli move.
But Israeli army sources told the paper that there was no plan to move into the PA territory Tuesday night.
The shooting on Gilo came a few hours after the Jenin operation in the early hours of Tuesday morning when Israeli tanks rolled into the West Bank town, and took up positions in the city square, as tanks and bulldozers demolished a Palestinian police station elsewhere in the town.
The operation was in retaliation for the suicide bombing in Kiryat Motzkin on Sunday, in which 30 people were injured.
The latest Israeli incursions followed a day of Arab outrage provoked by a raid by Israeli tanks and bulldozers into the Palestinian town of Jenin before dawn Tuesday.
The two-hour operation left a Palestinian police station destroyed and prompted Palestinians to open fire on a Jewish settlement on the periphery of occupied east Jerusalem.
Further violence across the West Bank left at least 11 people wounded, while Palestinian militants warned Israel would pay "very dearly" if it tried another incursion. The clashes lasted several hours.
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old Palestinian Fateh activist was killed in the West Bank town of Nablus Tuesday by a large explosion which Israeli media said could have been a bomb he was carrying.
Israel launched an air strike against a Palestinian base in Ramallah after another suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Thursday killed 16, including the bomber.
Sharon has warned that more Israeli attacks could be on the way.
"Those who resort to terrorism will pay a political price. The Palestinians have something to lose, and they will lose more of their assets if violence continues," he said.
Tuesday's early morning raid was the most intrusive attack yet by the Israelis against the Palestinians in 11 months of escalating violence.
It also represented one of the most serious breaches so far of the 1995 deal that handed Palestinians control of the West Bank.
The United States tried to calm the situation with US President George W. Bush calling for the Palestinians to "clamp down" on suicide bombers, while the White House criticized Israel's raid on Jenin as "provocative," AFP said.
"The attempt to invade Jenin failed because of the heroic popular resistance and the united effort by all the national forces in the city," Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said.
Thousands of Palestinians turned out in the streets of Jenin after the raid, expressing their joy at what Islamic forces described as another blow to Israel.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrived in Cairo late Tuesday to discuss Israel's mounting diplomatic and military offensive with Arab leaders, airport sources told AFP.
Arafat is due to meet Wednesday with Arab League chief Amr Moussa and the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, Ahmed Maher and Abel Ilah Khatib.
The talks will take place on the sidelines of an emergency meeting between Arab information ministers and Arab League spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi to "examine Arab and international steps to take faced with Israel's practices in Jerusalem," Moussa said Monday.
AFP's latest death tally for the Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation comes out to 13 Arab Israelis, 547 Palestinians, and 146 Israelis, putting the ratio of casualties at around four Palestinians killed for every Israeli loss.
Israel’s wounded number in the high hundreds, according to army sources, while the Palestine Red Crescent Society puts the number of Palestinians injured at over 14,000.
Amnesty International reported early this year that almost 100 Palestinian children had been killed by Israeli soldiers, nearly all in situations where the occupation troops were under no immediate threat.
The latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation began last September – Albawaba.com
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