WEST BANK (voa) – Israeli warplanes have demolished a Palestinian security building in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, and helicopters have struck at an intelligence office near the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The air strike came on a day of Israeli assaults that have killed at least 17 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says the Palestinians must be dealt serious blows before any negotiations can start.
Monday’s victims included a Palestinian woman and five children, killed when Israeli tank shells hit two cars in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Israeli army apologized for the civilian deaths, saying the intended target was another vehicle believed to be carrying armed men.
Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians while raiding the Jenin refugee camp looking for members of militant groups and weapons. The dead include a Palestinian doctor, killed when Israeli troops fired at his ambulance, and a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
The group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s sniper fire against Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and the suicide bombing in Jerusalem a day earlier – attacks that killed 20 Israelis.
Israel decided late Sunday to apply what it called continuous military pressure on the Palestinians after the surge in Israeli deaths.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades had vowed revenge for Israeli assaults on two refugee camps that left at least 25 Palestinians dead earlier in the week.
In other violence Monday, Israeli troops killed three Palestinians at the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza. The troops said they were searching for tunnels used to smuggle arms from Egypt. The Israelis destroyed several buildings before withdrawing. Elsewhere, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man near an army checkpoint near Nablus in the West Bank.
