Israeli occupation troops arrested 12 wanted Palestinians during a security sweep throughout the West Bank overnight.Seven Palestinians were arrested in Doura, near Hebron, three in Nablus, one near Bethlehem and another north of Tulkarem, the Israeli army said in a statement Monday.Following a wave of killings in Israel, the occupation army has reoccupied nearly all of the West Bank since June and has carried out regular searches and arrests.

Israel raids Palestinian security base in Gaza

Israel sent tanks and helicopter gunships against Palestinian security forces in Gaza, accusing them of complicity in "terrorism."

The raids occured Monday as Israeli sky marshals foiled a hijack bid on the Jewish state's almost impregnable airline, El Al.
Four Palestinians were wounded in the overnight raid on Gaza City, when Israeli occupation troops clashed with armed Palestinians as they surrounded and then partially destroyed a base of the Palestinian preventive security  forces.

"Rather than preventing terrorism, the preventive security in the Gaza Strip is involved in terrorism. Interrogation of Palestinians arrested and this overnight raid proved that," Brigadier General Israel Ziv alleged Monday.

In the two-year Palestinian uprising, or intifada, "many men who have come out of its ranks have taken part in the production of arms or in attacks alongside terrorists from Hamas or Fatah," Ziv said of the preventive security force.

"Overnight, during our brief operation in Gaza, we found many arms at the base of this organisation, including dozens of mortars, grenade launchers, a Qassam missile, a weapons production facility and an enormous amount of subversive material," he added.

Hamas is an extreme Islamic group which has carried out many resistance attacks against Israeli civilians and developed the Qassam rocket, while the Fatah movement is led by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said the Gaza raid revealed "close links between" Palestinian resistance groups and Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

"The army raid last night proves once again the close links between the Palestinian Authority's security services and Palestinian terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad,' Mofaz said in a statement Monday.

"The evidence gathered in this raid proves that the Palestinian terrorist machine continues to work without pause and produce weapons to kill Israeli civilians," he added.

Israeli combat helicopters fired rockets and machine guns at the preventive security building in the southern Tal el-Hawa district of Gaza City, hitting it by rocket at least twice, Palestinian security sources said.

Then some 30 Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles, accompanied by a bulldozer, moved in just before midnight and encircled it.

The bulldozer demolished the perimeter wall before the tanks rolled in through the breach and fired at the targeted building, the Palestinian sources said.

The building was partially destroyed and six nearby buildings were damaged.

Four Palestinians -- three policemen and a cameraman -- were wounded by the Israeli occupation army during the operation, they said, adding that there had been a brief exchange of fire.

During the raid the occupation army also destroyed the house of a Palestinian they had arrested two days earlier, they said.
Some Israel tanks were damaged by explosives laid in their path but none were destroyed, the occupation army said.

Israeli occupation troops also arrested 12 wanted Palestinians during a security sweep throughout the West Bank overnight, the occupation army said in a statement.

Palestinian security sources said two of the men seized were the heads of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a hardline Fatah offshoot, in the city. They said Nasser Bedawi, 36, and Rayed Rowash, 27, were arrested in Nablus' Balata refugee camp.

Following a wave of killings in Israel, the occupation army has reoccupied nearly all of the West Bank since June and has carried out regular searches and arrests.

The incursion came after Israeli security guards on an El Al plane foiled a hijack attempt on a flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul.

Turkish police were questioning the would-be hijacker, identified as an Israeli Arab, who tried to enter the plane's cockpit with a knife, but was swiftly overpowered by El Al guards on the plane carrying 170 passengers.

The latest violence came as Israel mulled extending the area under its direct control in the divided West Bank City of Hebron, where 12 Israelis were killed Friday night in a Palestinian ambush.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he wants to join the Jewish settlement on the edge of the flashpoint city to a Jewish enclave in the centre, where 600 hardcore settlers live. Settlers have already moved into the area to establish an outpost.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli occupation soldiers arrested 12 Palestinians in overnight raids throughout the West Ba