A Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip, the third on Thursday after a policeman from the presidential guards unit, Force 17, was killed overnight and a teenager during clashes in the morning.
Mohammed Salman Abu Shamla, 18, was hit by bullets in the head and the heart when Israeli troops fired live rounds and tear gas on stone-throwing Palestinian youths at the Erez crossing point between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel, said AFP.
Earlier, Mahmud Khaled Abu Shahada, 15, was shot dead with a bullet to the heart during the same clash, that has also left 12 Palestinians injured, one of them seriously.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet gave Wednesday night the green light to more attacks against Palestinians, after approving helicopter raids that left two Palestinians killed and more than 60 wounded, reports said.
After meeting late into Wednesday night, the cabinet authorized Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer to order further action with the approval of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, said Haaretz newspaper.
The three were given the go-ahead to order not only responses to Palestinian attacks but also to individual pre-emptive measures, an Israeli government source told the paper.
The cabinet also, said the source, justified Wednesday's air strikes against posts of Force 17, saying that officials the Palestinian Authority "were found to be intensively involved in terrorism."
Reuters reported that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's home in the Gaza Strip was damaged by the Israel helicopter strike, apparently hit by a copter-fired missile.
Arafat, who had been attending an Arab summit in Jordan, was not in the house at the time of the attack Wednesday night, said the agency.
Reuters television footage showed rooms of the house strewn with shattered glass and debris, walls with broken plaster and a hole in one wall which was apparently hit by a missile.
The bombings were ordered against "precise targets of officials linked to terrorism," Sharon's office said in a statement, quoted by the paper.
Ben Eliezer told Israel's Channel Two television that "the raids are message to Yasser Arafat ... so that he understands that our patience is at its end."
Before the meeting, Ben Eliezer accused the Palestinian Authority of having declared war on Israel, said AFP.
"It's a state of war; the Palestinians are fighting us day and night," Ben Eliezer said.
"Those who believe the government is going to stay with its arms folded are badly mistaken," he said.
In separate remarks before his security cabinet convened, Sharon vowed to crack down on the violence and restore security to Israel.
"Everyone who sees these things that have occurred over the course of 36 hours understands exactly what kind of situation we are in," Sharon told reporters in remarks broadcast on Israeli army radio.
"The situation is clear and this situation will be stopped. Israel's deterrent capacity will return to its fullest," he added.
The radio also quoted Sharon as describing Arafat as "a terrorist leader," according to AFP.
The meeting and military action follow a bomb blast in central Israel near the border with the West Bank that killed two Israelis and the bomber, the day after two attacks in Jerusalem that killed a suicide bomber and left dozens of Israelis injured.
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, secretary of the Palestinian presidency, told AFP the helicopter raids were "an escalation of Israeli aggression."
Following the raids, an Israeli military spokesman said that Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian wearing the uniform of Force 17 who was carrying a Kalashnikov near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.
"A Palestinian wearing the uniform of Force 17 and armed with a gun was killed by Israeli soldiers overnight after he opened fire on their position," said the source, quoted by Haaretz.
In response to spiraling confrontation, US President George W. Bush called on Israelis and Palestinians to exercise maximum restraint, said AFP.
"Both sides should live up to the commitments they have made, combat terrorism and engage in dialogue," Bush said through a spokesman.
The comments come on top of earlier remarks from the State Department in which the United States said it recognized Israel's need to protect itself from terrorist attacks, but called for both the Jewish state and the Palestinians to end the violence wracking the region, added the agency.
The statement said the president was "deeply concerned about the escalation of violence in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza that has claimed the lives of a number of innocent people this week."
"There is no justification for acts of terrorism," the White House said. "The tragic cycle of incitement, provocation and violence has gone on far too long."
The statement urged the Palestinian Authority "speak out publicly against violence and terrorism, arrest the perpetrators of terrorist acts, and resume security cooperations," AFP added.
"The Government of Israel should exercise restraint while taking steps to restore normalcy for the lives of the Palestinian people by easing closures and removing checkpoints," the White House said.
Earlier Wednesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said recent suicide bombings blamed by Israel on the Palestinians, were unacceptable and said the Palestinian Authority "must" take action to stop such attacks.
"The pattern of repeated terrorist suicide attacks directed at innocent civilians is an outrage and must stop," Boucher said.
Speaking ahead of Boucher, a senior US official said that while the United States understood Israel's frustration, the Jewish state needed to carefully consider the implications of their actions.
That official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Peres had, in a phone call, informed US Secretary of State Colin Powell of the strikes just as they got underway.
At the time of the call, Powell was having lunch with Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, the official said.
"Peres called and told them what they were doing and why they were doing it," the official said, declining to comment on any response Powell or the others had offered the foreign minister - Albawaba.com
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