Israel's government met today to plan its retaliation after 21 Israelis were killed in a matter of hours, in a suicide blast in Jerusalem and attacks on soldiers in the Palestinian territories.
Following a cabinet meeting earlier in the day, Israeli media said Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon would be discussing further action with his smaller security cabinet in the evening, after talks with Defence Minister Mr Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres.
In the wake of last night's suicide attack in a Jewish Orthodox district which killed nine people plus the bomber and injured some 50, a single Palestinian sniper today gunned down seven Israeli soldiers and three settlers in the West Bank with a vintage World War II rifle.
A soldier was killed in the Gaza Strip in an attack claimed jointly by Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat's Fatah group, which also claimed the Jerusalem suicide attack.
Israel's initial riposte was sporadic, with one Palestinian policeman killed by tank fire in the autonomous village of Salfit, south of Nablus, and another in clashes in Ramallah, where 18 were also wounded.
Two members of the Palestinian intelligence services were also shot dead during a brief incursion by two Israeli tanks into the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, Palestinian security and hospital sources said.
Later, six tanks moved into the autonomous West Bank city of Jenin, a day after Israel ended a deadly sweep for suspected militants in the refugee camp there, while more than 25 tanks and other military vehicles were spotted moving into the Gaza Strip.
A third policeman died of wounds received Thursday during the army's incursion into the refugee camp of Jenin in the northern West Bank.
The deaths raised to 1,338 the number of people killed since the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, broke out in September 2000, including 1,011 Palestinians and 304 Israelis.
Israeli helicopters earlier attacked a Palestinian headquarters in Bethlehem, causing no casualties, while clashes were also reported in the Gaza Strip.
While the Palestinian Authority condemned the Jerusalem suicide blast, Israel accused Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat of giving the green light to Palestinian organisations to unleash a "terrorist offensive" against it.
There was no immediate claim for the other killings, but Mr Marwan Baghuti, the head of Fatah in the West Bank, said, "I congratulate the Palestinian people and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades for their operations against (Israeli) soldiers and settlers."
The Palestinian attacks followed Israeli incursions into West Bank refugee camps in which 21 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed, prompting threats of a bloody response by the Martyrs Brigades.
The continuing escalation in the violence is a blow to a Saudi peace initiative for the Middle East which has been gaining Arab and international support despite mixed signals from Israel and the United States.
AFP