JERUSALEM, PALESTINE

At least five people died on Sunday, and several others were injured in separate incidents.

General Zinni, who later met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah, sharply criticised the violence, which comes after a two-day lull in the bloodshed. Clashes erupted when Israeli tanks moved into Bethlehem.

Yesterday the Islamic Jihad bomber jumped out at a busy road crossing in the French Hill section of Jerusalem and set off a device alongside cars and a bus, wounding several Israelis.

Earlier, a Palestinian was shot dead, after a gun attack in the central Israeli town of Kfar Saba, near the West Bank border. The shooting took place just after noon at a busy junction, the site of several previous attacks. One woman was killed and 15 people were wounded.

On the other side, Palestinian medics reported that at least one Palestinian had been killed in the fighting. Palestinian security sources said a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Mahmoud Awad, 22, had been killed in the incursion.

Israeli and Palestinian field commanders have met in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as the US envoy, Anthony Zinni, continues his efforts to try to secure a ceasefire.

General Zinni has been putting heavy pressure on both sides as he tries to coax them towards a ceasefire, hoping to have something in hand as the US Vice President, Dick Cheney, arrives in Israel on Monday to push truce talks.

Cheney will arrive in the Jewish state after stopping in Kuwait to complete a swing through Arab countries. He has been seeking support for extending the U.S.-led war on terrorism and soliciting views on resolving the Middle East conflict.

Arab leaders have told Cheney that raging Israeli-Palestinian violence is a far more pressing priority to them than the U.S. campaign to stop Iraqi President Saddam Hussein acquiring weapons of mass destruction. They have urged greater U.S. involvement in the search for peace.

"There is no question that the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is a preoccupation for everybody in this part of the world," Cheney said at a news conference in Bahrain on Sunday with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa.