JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation troops and Palestinian Palestinian Resistance men battled in Bethlehem Monday as international envoys urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to ``combat terrorism'' and Israel to pull its forces out of West Bank cities.
Stoking Middle East tensions further, Lebanese Hizbollah Resistance men attacked Israeli occupation army positions on the Lebanon border and Israel responded with air strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Palestinian security officials said Israeli occupation troops killed a Palestinian outside a hospital in Beit Jala, where fighting has raged since the army moved into or around six West Bank cities after last week's slaying of a far-right cabinet minister.
In an industrial area of Jerusalem, a Palestinian Resistance man shot and wounded four people before an Israeli occupation soldier killed him. Police said the killing followed a money dispute with his Israeli employer, but two Islamic Resistance groups later claimed involvement. (Read photo caption below)
The bloodshed raised tensions higher at a time when Washington has been trying to calm a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence as it seeks to bolster Arab support for its military campaign to hunt down Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Israel launched its biggest ground offensive to date against the Palestinian Authority after leftist Resistance men from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) assassinated far-right Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi last Wednesday.
But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faces unease inside his coalition administration over the offensive from the center-left Labor Party, the biggest partner in the ``unity government.''
Arafat is also under pressure. He outlawed the military wing of the PFLP Sunday, but would take a big political risk by bowing to a demand by Israel to hand over the assassins.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The Palestinian Resistance bomber's body is removed from the scene. The latest Resistance attack comes as Israel continues to occupy positions inside Palestinian towns across the West Bank and in the aftermath of the assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rechavam Zeevi. The Palestinian bomber killed on Monday had opened fire in Talpiot, an industrial area of occupied Jerusalem.