Palestinian gunmen killed 11 suspected collaborators today as Israel tightened its grip on the West Bank in a drive to isolate Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, entering another town and moving troops towards others.
In Jerusalem when a Palestinian bomber blew himself up after police stopped the car he was in at a checkpoint on the edge of an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood, police officials said. A policeman was critically wounded and two other people hurt in the blast.
Israeli security sources said an Israeli was killed in southern Jerusalem by a Palestinian sniper positioned in the nearby West Bank town of Bethlehem.
In a separate incident masked Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank shot dead eight men being held in an intelligence building in the West Bank town of Tulkarm. A group of gunmen shot dead another at night in the biblical town of Bethlehem. Two others were found shot dead in Qalqilya.
Arafat, remains trapped inside his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, besieged by tanks since Friday. An Irish woman, Ms Caoimhe Butterly is believed to be inside the compound. She is a member of a peace group.
Gunbattles erupted anew as Israeli troops swept neighbourhoods for suspected Palestinian militants.
Seven foreign peace activists - including a Palestinian cameraman - were wounded when Israeli troops opened fire during a demonstration in the West Bank town of Beit Jala.
Members of the group Solidarity International, which helped organize the demonstration said a 26-year-old Australian woman was hit in the stomach with shrapnel and was undergoing an operation. A Frenchman in his fifties was hit in the head.
The other foreigners wounded less severely were two Britons, two Americans and a Japanese, the group said. The one Palestinian wounded was a cameraman for Associated Press Television (APTV).
The firing started when about 100 demonstrators, including Palestinians and foreigners, marched near a church in the centre of Beit Jala, carrying a sign saying `We want peace not war,' witnesses said. In Jerusalem, army spokesman Mr Ron Kitrey said more than 700 people, including a relatively large number of wanted people at different levels of importance, in raids throughout Ramallah.
"We are looking for wanted people who are hiding in private buildings, in apartments. We know they are hiding in official buildings. There are some who are hiding under Arafat's wing..." he said.
"We are now in a state of war. We are not going to stop it until we reach our goals and see terror has stopped," Israeli Justice Minister Mr Meir Shitreet said.
Islamic leaders expressed fury at Israel's four-day-old siege of Arafat's headquarters and a Jordanian official said Amman might expel Israeli ambassador Mr David Dadon in protest. Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries to have signed peace treaties with Israel.
A small contingent of tanks firing heavy machineguns also thrust into Tulkarm late this evening as helicopters circled overhead, witnesses said, but added that they later moved back to the city outskirts. The army denied the report.
Witnesses also said about 80 Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles were massing near Nablus in the northern West Bank and had gathered on the edge of Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem.
Four Israelis were wounded when a security post at the Jewish settlement of Beit El, just north of Ramallah, came under fire, Israeli security sources said.
In the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said an 11-year-old boy died of his wounds after being shot by Israeli troops in the town of Rafah. The army denied shooting him. Following a meeting of the UN Security Council Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Israel to immediately withdraw from Palestinian lands and President Arafat's compound.
".....[Israel's] military actions in the West Bank and Gaza can only produce a further deterioration and the loss of more innocent Palestinian and Israeli life, and should be ended immediately," Mr Annan said.
"I fear that much worse is to come if the escalation on both sides is allowed to continue. The parties are locked into the logic of war, and I fear for the consequences, including for the region, he said.
On Saturday the Security Council passed a resolution demanding an Israeli withdrawal by 14 votes to none.
The US appealed for Israeli restraint in Ramallah and also called on President Yasser Arafat to act now to end a wave of attacks against Israelis.
"We are gravely concerned at the situation in Ramallah and other areas where Israeli forces are moving. We deplore the killing and wounding of innocent Palestinians and we urge Israel to use maximum restraint to avoid harm to civilians and permit access for humanitarian services," said State Department spokesman Mr Philip Reeker.
Mr Reeker, who said the US supported a UN resolution for Israel to withdraw from Ramallah, said Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon needed to carefully consider the consequences of his forces' actions in Ramallah.
He reiterated strong US criticism of Arafat over attacks against Israelis, including one by a Palestinian bomber this afternoon. "The Palestinian leadership must act now against those responsible and make clear to the Palestinian people that terror and violence must stop," Mr Reeker said. AFP and