Nine Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed today in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in the bloodiest week so far in the 17-month-old Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli rule.
Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli army incursion at Abassan near Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, medical sources said.
Two Israeli soldiers were also killed during fighting with the Palestinians during the incursion, Israeli military sources said. The hardline Islamic Hamas group claimed responsibility for their deaths.
According to Palestinian security sources, 14 Palestinians were captured in the raid.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers intercepted two Palestinians carrying explosives in the northern West Bank, killing both of them, the army said.
Israeli F-16 fighter jets also fired at least one rocket on Palestinian security buildings in the northern part of Gaza City today, injuring at least five civilians, Palestinian security and hospital sources said.
Two Israeli helicopter gunships blasted the offices of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah party near Hebron, demolishing the building, while another missile hit near an installation of the hardline Islamic group Hamas without exploding.
Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon said "the army has been given a programme of action aimed at hitting terrorist organisations and the structures of the Palestinian Authority which give them aid.
"These measures are necessary to arrive at a situation enabling a return to a political process," he added. "We will arrive at this process after a long and hard battle which we are facing."
An army statement said that during the incursion around Khan Yunis and Abassan the army had destroyed three homes belonging to militants on Israel's wanted list but did not comment further.
The operations came a few hours after the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic movement Hamas, claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on southern Israel Tuesday, injuring Israelis for the first time.
Israel had warned when this new weapon was first used that if one of the rockets ever hit a populated area in Israel, the army's retaliation would be radical.
In another deadly operation, Israeli marines attacked Palestinian targets in Beit Lahia, killing four Palestinians, among them naval officers, and wounding five, one of them seriously.
Also, two Palestinian men died of their wounds today after an Israeli army raids a day before in the West Bank self-rule area of Dura near the West Bank town of Hebron, Palestinian hospital sources said.
The deaths bring the overall toll from the 17-month-old Palestinian intifada to 1,381, of whom 1,046 are Palestinians and 312 Israelis.
Meanwhile, witnesses said the Israeli army encircled two autonomous Palestinian villages near the northern West Bank militant stronghold of Jenin.
Israeli infantry units backed by some 15 tanks encircled Al-Yamun, while other troops with five tanks were deployed around Silat Al-Harbiya.
And clashes erupted on the border in the self-rule town of Rima, near Ramallah, as Apache helicopters hovered over the scene of Palestinian gunmen and Israel troops trading fire.
After a string of deadly incidents at roadblocks over the past week, tension was high across Israeli army positions across the territories.
This morning, one Israeli policeman and two Palestinians were injured in a shooting incident at an army checkpoint in the West Bank where a suicide bomber struck last week.
A "very suspicious" vehicle coming from the West Bank town of Ramallah tried to break through the roadblock, the army said.
Israeli soldiers opened fire, wounding the Palestinians moderately, while a soldier was lightly injured in the incident at the Maccabim checkpoint on the Green Line which separates Israel from the West Bank, the source said.
The mayor of Silat Al-Daher in near Nablus also said Israeli soldiers injured three schoolboys. Mr Ragheb Abu Diak said the soldiers opened fire on the children when they started throwing stones at them.
An Israeli military source said shots had also been fired, and the Israelis had responded mainly with rubber bullets.
Palestinian gunmen also fired at an Israeli, wounding him seriously near the West Bank town of Qalqilya, public radio reported without giving more details.
AFP