The Palestinian Authority demanded Saturday an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the mounting crisis in the Occupied Territories, which saw five Palestinians killed during the day in Israeli incursions.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's top aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, was quoted by Al Jazeera satellite channel as saying that the PA would submit its request to the international body.
Meanwhile, Israel's military might hit the Palestinian territories again as its forces killed six Palestinians, including three security force members, a male civilian and a woman during incursions in the West Bank.
The latest death incident took place when an Israeli tank fire killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in the autonomous town of Bethlehem during an Israeli incursion, witnesses told AFP.
Yusef Abayat was shot in the southeastern part of town.
The Palestinian woman was killed by the Israeli army Saturday morning in the autonomous Palestinian town of Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem in the West Bank, hospital sources told AFP.
Rania Kharufa, 36, was killed by shrapnel from a tank shell which exploded near her house, the sources said, adding that six other Palestinians, including three policemen, were wounded by Israeli bullets in Beit Jala, the sources said.
Kharufa had five sons and two daughters. Her eldest son, 18, is jailed in Israel, Palestinian sources told Albawaba.com.
They said that two houses in Bethlehem caught fire during the incursion Saturday afternoon.
Israeli tanks stormed the Palestinian city of Bethlehem Friday, killing three Palestinians, and also rolled into the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, ostensibly to protect the Jewish settlement of Gilo outside occupied Jerusalem.
Israeli troops also killed two members of the Palestinian security forces in the autonomous Palestinian town of Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.
They were named as Mustapha Zetani, 53 and Maher Abu Hassan, 33.
The pair were killed during a heavy exchange of fire between Israeli and Palestinian forces, according to the sources, as Israeli armored vehicles rolled into the town.
Another member of the security forces was said to have been seriously wounded in the exchange.
An army spokesman said two Israeli soldiers were also wounded in the clashes.
Meanwhile a 37-year-old Palestinian civilian and a 20-year-old Palestinian policemen, Samir Shawahna, were killed as more troops penetrated Qalqiliya, another Palestinian-controlled town in the northern West Bank.
The troops also arrested seven people, including two members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 bodyguard corps, the sources said.
An Israeli official said that hunting "terrorists" was one of the new attacks' aims.
The Israeli fire left three other Palestinians wounded, and a Palestinian security position destroyed, sources added.
The Israeli army confirmed the incursions, saying it had occupied "strategic positions" in both towns.
"Following events of recent days, Israeli forces encircled Tulkarem and Qalqilya, and took possession of the headquarters of the Palestinian security forces in the latter place," an Israeli military statement said.
The army also destroyed "positions from which firing had taken place recently against Israeli targets," the statement said.
"In the course of these operations exchanges of fire occurred which caused no injuries in Israeli ranks and Palestinian suspects were arrested," it added.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian security officer in the head during an exchange of fire in the West Bank city of Ramallah, which Israeli troops had entered Thursday, hospital sources said.
They listed him in critical condition.
Israeli armored attacks have deepened the conflict since last Wednesday's assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Revahem Zeevi in a Jerusalem hotel by a Palestinian group. Six Palestinians died on Friday.
The heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem issued an emergency plea after Israel's Friday incursion in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Three Palestinian civilians died during the attack.
"While we deplore all acts of violence, we appeal to world church leaders and the international community to make urgent representation to the Israeli government to bring this intolerable situation to an immediate end," the church leaders' statement said.
The latest killings brought the overall toll for the year-old Intifada, or Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli occupation, to 896 dead, according to AFP's tally.
The overwhelming majority of the dead are Palestinians - Albawaba.com
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