Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian militants in the West Bank on Friday, and 30,000 supporters of the Islamic group Hamas rallied in the Gaza Strip, vowing to avenge the killings of gunmen and civilians.
One of the militants, Tarek Abed Rabbo, was a senior field commander of Hamas's military wing. Palestinian security sources said he was shot 13 times while hiding in a closet by Israeli soldiers who raided Nour Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm.
Four Palestinians were wounded in the operation and a Hamas militant was detained by the Israeli force, the sources said.
Earlier, soldiers killed an armed Palestinian in an exchange of fire in Thabra village, south of Bethlehem in the West Bank, when he tried to evade capture, Israeli military sources said.
But Palestinian witnesses said troops surrounded a house where Jadallah Shoka, 32, an Islamic Jihad member, was hiding and killed him in a barrage of gunfire before detaining three other men inside. They said the Israelis never came under fire.
The violence, which has continued despite Washington's appeals for calm while it seeks Arab support for a possible war on Iraq, followed a day of bloodletting yesterday in which seven Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed.
With Christmas approaching, Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said he had contacted senior Israeli officials to ask that Israel "not obstruct (President Yasser) Arafat's travel plans to Bethlehem this year to take part in Christmas mass".
A spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week Israel would not allow Arafat, who it accuses of complicity in "terrorism", to travel from the West Bank town of Ramallah to Bethlehem. Israel controls West Bank roads and airspace.
Arafat denies he encourages attacks on Israelis.
Last year, Israel banned Arafat, a Muslim, from joining the Palestinian Christian community in celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus.
Israel Radio cited a senior military officer as saying that "due to serious terror threats" the army was unlikely to quit Palestinian-ruled Bethlehem, reoccupied three weeks ago after a suicide bombing killed 11 people on a Jerusalem bus.