HIGHLIGHTS: Dead Include Mohammad Kishko, of The Aqsa Martyrs Brigade||Resistance Destroys one of 20 Tanks Taking part in Operation & Israeli Ambulances Seen in the Battlefield||Israeli Occupation Troops Demolish a House of Relatives of a Late Resistance Activist & Carry on House-to-House Searches for Resistance Activists||In New York, American UN Security Council Draft Resolution Calling for an End to Demolitions and Destruction in Ramallah Believed to Signal Impatience with Israeli Actions as Washington Prepares to Move against Iraq||Palestinians Adopt New Protest Format in Support of Arafat||Annan Brands Israel's Battering of PA " A Bankrupt Policy'||Palestinian Resistance Man Fires at Israeli Settlers in Hebron, Al-Khalil Killing one of them and Wounding 3 Others|| STORY: Israeli tanks backed by helicopters stormed into Gaza City early Tuesday and battled Palestinian Resistance men in clashes that left nine Palestinians dead and 24 injured, hospital officials said.

The tanks penetrated a half mile into Gaza City in one of the most violent incursions in the city since Israeli forces began a series of operations there in April, witnesses said. The occupation soldiers also blew up a metals factory.

The occupation army confirmed that a military operation was under way in Gaza and said no occupation soldiers had been injured, but declined to comment further.

One of the nine men killed was Mohammed Kishkho, 45, a local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Resistance fighters.

Kishkho died of shrapnel wounds suffered from tank shell explosion, said Dr. Moawia Hassanein at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.

The incursion into the eastern Shejia neighborhood of the city was an apparent effort to enter the homes of several Palestinian activists killed by Israeli occupation troops earlier this year, witnesses said.

Witnesses said Israeli occupation forces demolished the home of Mohammed Farhat, a member of the Resistance group Hamas shot to death by Israel forces last March after he killed five Jewish settlers in an internationally illegal Gaza settlement.

Palestinians hit at least one of the 20 tanks used in the operation with explosives, and army bulldozers were attempting to push the tank out of the area, said witness Salim Abu Amr, a schoolteacher. Other witnesses saw Israeli ambulances in the area.

Two helicopters and several bulldozers also took part in the operation, and the occupation troops began carrying out house-to-house searches.

U.S. COUNTERS A PALESTINIAN UN SECURITY COUNCIL DRAFT RESOLUTION WITH ONE OF ITS OWN

In New York, Israel stood alone on Tuesday over its siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters, jolted by rare U.S. criticism of its bid to isolate the Palestinian leader by confining him to a command compound it has largely leveled.

Turning the tables on its ally, Washington introduced a draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council on Monday calling on Israel to stop destroying Palestinian installations in Ramallah.

The unusual move appeared to signal White House impatience with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as it prepares for possible war with Iraq and contemplates the damage his actions might cause U.S. efforts to win Arab support for the campaign.

Israeli occupation forces entered Arafat's headquarters complex in the West Bank city on Thursday and demolished all but his office block after two resistance bombings killed seven people in Israel in the past week and shattered a six-week lull in such attacks.

The U.S. draft resolution asked Israel "to cease measures in and around Ramallah, including the destruction of Palestinian civilian and security infrastructure, that aggravate the situation and that do not contribute to progress on comprehensive Palestinian civil and security reforms."

It also demanded the complete cessation by all sides of "all acts of violence, including all acts of terror" and asked the Palestinian Authority to bring to justice those responsible for "terrorist acts."

PALESTINIANS ADOPT NEW PROTEST FORMAT IN SUPPORT OF ARAFAT

In the West Bank, Palestinians adopted a new protest in their two-year-old uprising for an independent state, taking to balconies and streets in major cities to beat pots and pans in rhythmic rejection of Israel's siege of Arafat.

Joining an international outcry at a time when Arafat has been hammered by calls from home and abroad for security and anti-corruption reforms, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Israel's battering of the Palestinian Authority was a "bankrupt policy" that bolstered extremists.

ARAFAT REFUSES TO HAND OVER SO-CALLED WANTED ACTIVISTS ALLEGEDLY HOLED UP WITH HIM AT THE 'MUQATAA'

Sticking to his position, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer issued a statement early on Tuesday saying he would not budge from a demand that Arafat hand over wanted activists holed up with him in the battered compound. Arafat has refused.

Briefly opening its security cordon on Monday, the occupation army allowed chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat into the presidential complex to brief Arafat on talks he had earlier with Israeli officials.

Erekat said Israeli officials had refused to present him with a list of the suspected activists in the compound and demanded Arafat draw up a list identifying them.

"Arafat rejected the Israeli proposal," Erekat told Reuters.

In the West Bank city of Hebron, a Palestinian resistance man fired at Israeli settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron, killing one Israeli man and wounding three others. 

PHOTO CAPTION

(Top: L) Medical workers wheel on a stretcher a man wounded by shrapnel in his head to the emergency room at Shifa hospital in Gaza City early Tuesday Sept. 24, 2002. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

(Top: R) Palestinian President Yasser Arafat signs papers in his besieged office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, September 23, 2002. (Hussein Hussein/Palestinian Authority via Reuters)

(Bottom: L) Palestine's United Nations representative Nasser Al-Kidwa gestures as he speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Monday, Sept. 23, 2002, at the United Nations in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

(Bottom: R) Referring to the siege of president Arafat in Ramallah, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan described the practice as a 'bankrupt policy' during a United Nations Security Council meeting about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Monday, Sept. 23, 2002, at the United Nations in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
- Sep 23 12:44 PM