The Israeli army made a large-scale incursion into the West Bank town of Nablus this morning, reoccupying most of the Palestinian self-rule town and the nearby Balata refugee camp, security sources on both sides said.
The incursion, which Palestinian witnesses said involved infantry units, backed by around 50 tanks, armoured vehicles and personnel carriers under cover of helicopter gunships.
Israeli forces were controlling most of the northern West Bank town this morning, according to Palestinian witnesses, but did not however enter the Old City, which was the scene in March of some of the 20-month-old intifada's fiercest fighting.
Palestinian security sources said six people had been arrested, including the local chief of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
An Israeli military spokesman said: "the army was operating in the autonomous zone" and said "a curfew has been imposed in Nablus where the army had taken up position in various places."
A military source said the army had arrested "two wanted terrorists" and that the incursion was limited in time and scope, and aimed at preventing attacks against civilians in Israel and against Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
But later this morning, a Palestinian was killed by a settler as he attempted to attack Shavei Shomron, north of Nablus, military sources said.
Armed with an automatic weapon and hand grenades, he infiltrated the settlement and entered a house, where a settler shot him down, the army said, adding it was looking for a possible second assailant.
AFP