An Israeli missile attack killed a senior member of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in Hebron on Wednesday, Palestinian security officials told AFP.
Jamil Jadallah Halisa, 30, a leader of Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassan Brigades, was wanted by Israel for allegedly killing two Jewish settlers, said the agency.
In addition, Israeli tank fire killed a member of Hamas in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem Wednesday, said the agency.
Abdullah El Jarushi, 39, died shortly after being hit by heavy machinegun fire from a tank. He was near his sister's house when he was hit, medics told the agency.
He was the second Hamas member to be killed by Israel Wednesday.
Palestinian security officials said a missile was fired from an Israeli combat helicopter, killing Halisa in the street.
Al Jazeera satellite channel said that rocket targeted a house with the resistance fighter inside.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that Israel had carried out the attack, part of the Jewish state's policy of assassinating Palestinian militants suspected of threatening Israel.
Israel has killed more than 65 Palestinians in such strikes, Palestinian officials say.
Two other people were wounded in the blast, Palestinian officials said.
Halisa's death brought to 939 the number of people killed since the September 2000 start of the Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, including 734 Palestinians and 183 Israelis, according to AFP’s count.
Wednesday also brought bad news for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as Israel arrested five of its members in Jenin.
The Palestinian Authority, for its part, carried a number of arrests among the movement’s members, said the station.
On Tuesday, four members of the movement, including its spokesman in Gaza, Abdullah Shami, were put in PA custody.
MORE INCURSIONS, MORE VICTIMS
Four Palestinians, including a baby, were wounded by Israeli tank fire overnight in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security officials said Wednesday.
Two of the wounded were in a serious condition, they said. Israeli tanks fired heavy machineguns and shells into the area of Tal Es Sultan, setting fire to several Palestinian homes.
Several other people were also wounded in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers pushed into the Palestinian-ruled town of Arrabeh in the north of the West Bank at dawn Wednesday, sparking a gunfight that left two Palestinian policemen wounded, Palestinian security sources told AFP.
Israeli forces surrounded the home of Islamic Jihad activist Nabil Maghir, located about one kilometer inside the Palestinian autonomous zone near the city of Jenin.
Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for a drive-by shooting attack Sunday in the northern city of Hadera in which four Israeli women were killed along with two gunmen, and 31 people wounded.
About a dozen armored vehicles, two bulldozers and infantry units staged the dawn incursion into the Palestinian autonomous area, just two months after a previous brief raid.
An Israeli military official confirmed that the raid was underway but declined to give details.
The Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper said in its internet edition that five Palestinians, including Maghir, were arrested and two wounded in the offensive.
The incursion came as Israeli security forces were on extremely high alert for a suicide bomber who police sources said was feared en route to - or who may have already entered - the northern Sharon area. The area has been a frequent target of Palestinian fighter, many of them based in Jenin, said the paper.
PERES RULES OUT TALKS WITH ARAFAT
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official said Monday that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat would meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for the first time in more than a month at a conference of European and Mediterranean countries in Spain on Friday.
According to AFP, Peres admitted to reporters Tuesday he would "probably" meet Arafat at the conference, but stressed that no talks would take place.
"We shall probably meet but we are not going to negotiate because I think negotiations should be prepared very carefully," he said – Albawaba.com
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