In the biggest sweep in months, Israeli occupation troops hunting for resistance men stormed dozens of homes in this Palestinian city Wednesday, ordering residents to line up in the dawn chill as tanks blocked roads and helicopters hovered above. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat denounced the raid, which came two days after five Israelis were killed in a shooting rampage in a farming community, as a "new war crime."

The Palestinian leader also responded angrily to Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's pledge that, if elected prime minister, he would expel him. "Netanyahu has to remember that I am Yasser Arafat and that this is my land and the land of my great-great-grandfathers," he said.

The escalation came as Palestinian negotiators met with U.S. envoy David Satterfield, who is seeking comments on a new peace plan calling for Palestinian reforms, an Israeli occupation troop pullback and a provisional Palestinian state by 2003.

Palestinian officials denied Israeli reports that the United States agreed to put the plan on hold until after Israeli elections on Jan. 28. Israeli officials have said the plan does not meet Israeli security concerns and is unacceptable in its present form.

"Contrary to what the Israelis are saying, Mr. Satterfield informed us that the American administration will complete work on the road map and declare it by the middle of next month," said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat.

The Nablus raid was triggered by a weekend shooting attack on Kibbutz Metzer, an Israeli communal farm, by a resistance man from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Arafat's Fatah group.

The resistance man fled the scene after killing five people, including a mother and her two boys.

Israeli security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Wednesday identified the suspected resistance man as Sirhan Sirhan and said he is a distant relative of the assassin by the same name who killed Sen. Robert Kennedy in 1968.

Sirhan Sirhan, the suspect in the kibbutz attack, is a 19-year-old from the Tulkarem refugee camp. Relatives said Israeli occupation troops searched their homes and detained two of his uncles in a raid earlier this week.

Israeli security officials have said the order for the attack came from militiamen in Nablus.

In the Nablus raid, hundreds of occupation soldiers backed by about 100 armored vehicles and helicopter gunships poured into the city before dawn Wednesday. It was the biggest sweep in the city since Israel's "Defensive Shield" offensive in April, and occupation army commentators said they expected the operation to go on for many days.

Occupation troops have been in Nablus for most of the past seven months, enforcing curfews and manning checkpoints.
The focus of Wednesday's raid were several resistance man strongholds - the Old City, two neighborhoods near An Najah University as well as the Balata and Askar refugee camps on the outskirts of Nablus.

There were sporadic gunfights but no injuries.

Several explosions were heard in Nablus' Old City, or Casbah, apparently set off by occupation soldiers breaking open doors. Tanks sealed all exits from the Casbah, a maze of alleys and underground passages and the scene of fierce fighting in April. Occupation troops took over a nearby girls' elementary school as a makeshift base.

In the Raffidiyeh neighborhood near the university, four men and 10 women dressed in traditional Muslim robes were pulled out of their homes. The men were told to face the wall and the women were told to sit on the ground as occupation soldiers checked their identification and questioned them.

Israel declared Nablus a closed military zone, and occupation soldiers barred journalists from taking pictures or talking to those rounded up. The occupation army said 30 suspected resistance men were arrested in the raid.

Arafat said that the Nablus operation "is a new war crime that the Israeli occupation forces are committing against our people, our cities and our villages."

Occupation troops also swept into Bir Zeit, a university town north of Ramallah, arresting suspected resistance men and confining residents to their homes.

In the Gaza Strip , Israeli helicopters fired four missiles on a suspected weapons workshop in Gaza City, the second such strike on the site in two days. The attack demolished a car repair shop that had been severely damaged in a similar pre-dawn attack on Monday. The shop was empty at the time.

Arafat's Fatah faction, meanwhile, was trying to persuade the resistance Hamas group to stop resistance attacks in Israel. However, Hamas hinted Tuesday, after talks with Fatah in Cairo, that it would not agree to the demand.

Fatah has distanced itself from the shooting attack on the communal farm, saying it was a rogue operation and that it would help Arafat investigate.

In Israeli politics, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was greeted by booming applause Tuesday night at a convention of his Likud Party. Sharon distanced himself from Netanyahu's pledge to kick out Arafat at the first opportunity.

Sharon has repeatedly laid siege to Arafat's headquarters and occupation troops have largely destroyed the block-sized compound, but Sharon has stopped short of ousting the Palestinian leader, apparently because of U.S. opposition.

At the Likud convention, Sharon promised to wage an unrelenting battle against Palestinian resistance men and predicted the effort could lead to a more moderate Palestinian leadership.

Both Sharon and Netanyahu are vying for the leadership of the rightist Likud, which polls show is poised to win the most seats in the Jan. 28 general elections, giving its leader a good chance of becoming prime minister.

PHOTO CAPTION

The barrel of the gun on an Israeli tank is seen through a torn Palestinian flag as it holds position on a hilltop securing the area around the Old City of the northern West Bank town of Nablus Wednesday Nov. 13, 2002. Israeli occupation forces backed by dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers, swept into the largest West Bank town early Wednesday in an apparent hunt for Palestinian resistance men. Nablus, which Israel says is a hub for Palestinian resistance bombers, has faced some of the toughest curfews. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)