At least nine Palestinians were killed this morning during Israeli incursions into two towns near the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian sources said.
Three Palestinians were killed in the nearby village of Arraba including one man whose death was reported earlier, the sources said.
Another three were found dead in a refugee camp in Jenin and two were killed at Tubas in the same area.
Israeli tanks rumbled into Jenin and destroyed a Palestinian security headquarters in the heart of the West Bank city that Israel calls a "terrorist nest", before withdrawing again.
Gun battles erupted during the two hour raid that followed a troop build-up on the fringes of the city. Israel says a wave of suicide bombings have been launched from Jenin.
After destroying a security building, the tanks and troops withdrew from the area.
The Israeli tanks had encircled Jenin yesterday in an operation the army said was intended to prevent suicide bombers reaching Israel.
Meanwhile, an Israeli settler woman died after she was fatally wounded in an attack by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank, military officials said.
The woman, a resident of the Alfei Menashe Jewish settlement just inside the West Bank, was hit in the head and evacuated to hospital in the Israeli town of Kfaer Saba, but later died.
Her death brings to 797 the total number of people killed since the start of the intifada or uprising nearly a year ago, including 609 Palestiniens and 165 Israelis.
Military sources said that an Israeli man was also shot and slightly wounded in a similar attack near the West Bank town of Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem.
AFP