http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1699000/1699940.stm

Israeli troops storm West Bank villages

Violence has been mounting for days Dozens of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles, backed by two helicopter gunships, have stormed Palestinian villages in the West Bank to arrest suspected militants.

Four Palestinian policemen were shot dead by Israeli forces during the raids - which took place in the neighbouring villages of Anabta and Ramin - but the circumstances of their deaths are unclear.

Shortly afterwards, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated explosives at a crowded hitchhiking point in the port city of Haifa in northern Israel injuring at least 10 people.
The violence comes exactly a week after a series of devastating bomb attacks
in Haifa and Jerusalem which killed 26 people.

Israel responded by launching a big military offensive, and both the USand Israel demanded that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat clamp down on militants.

Israeli police believe the latest bombing did not cause as much damage because the bomber set off his explosives prematurely, after arousing the suspicion of officers who began to surround him.

Police said the suicide bomber was left badly wounded after the blast. When they saw he was still moving and feared he might detonate more explosives, they shot him dead.

Israeli raid

Anabta mayor Hamdallah Hamdallah said about 40 Israeli tanks, personnel carriers and jeeps, with helicopters hovering overhead, entered his village before dawn on Sunday.

Mr Hamdallah said the policemen were shot "in cold blood". An Israeli army spokesman said troops killed the four Palestinians after they opened fire from a car.

Witnesses said Israeli forces detained 25 people and took over two floors of the Anabta village council building - one of which was used by police and the other
by Mr Arafat's personal security organisation, Force 17.

Explaining the action, a brief statement by the army spoke of "a terrorist network
in the villages". In another incident later on Sunday, a Palestinian taxi driver was reportedly shot dead by a heavy machinegun fire from an Israeli tank on the edge of
the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

In the Gaza Strip, a senior member of the joint security liaison committee with Israel, Khalid Abu al-Ula, said several Israeli tanks had entered farmland east of the city of Rafah and blown up two police posts. The Palestinian Authority has appealed to the United States to speak out against the current wave of Israeli attacks.

Senior negotiator Saeb Erakat said: "We urge President Bush, for the sake of peace, to say to Sharon 'You don't have the green light. There is no military solution for this'."

More targets

BBC correspondents say the Palestinians' call will probably go unheeded, because the US has aligned itself with the Israeli position that it has "the right to defend itself," while Mr Arafat must do more to round up militants.

The Israeli cabinet is due to meet on Sunday to consider further targets. Mr Arafat says his security forces have arrested 17 Islamic militants from a list of 34 people wanted by
Israel. He said his officers would do their best to arrest the remaining militants on
Israel's list.

But correspondents say Mr Arafat's room for manoeuvre is diminishing by the day - caught between the demands for action from Israel, and hostility from militant groups
and their growing number of supporters.