HIGHLIGHTS: Several Bombers Come from Tulkarm||Hamas & Jihad Say Attacks Will Continue as Long as Israel Continues Killing Palestinian Civilians||Tension Reported High on Israeli-Lebanese Border|| STORY: Israeli occupation troops entered the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm and an adjacent refugee camp today in response to back-to-back bombings in Jerusalem that killed 26 Israelis over two days.

Palestinian witnesses said dozens of tanks drove into the town and the camp.

Tulkarm is close to Israel, and several bomb attackers have launched their attacks from the town. It was not clear if occupation troops were preparing for an extended stay.

ARAFAT SAYS HALT BOMBNINGS

President Yasser Arafat demanded an end to Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians on Thursday as Israeli troops raided Palestinian-ruled areas after two suicide bombings that killed 25 Israelis.

His written statement was read out by an announcer on Voice of Palestine radio and published in newspapers. It referred to the "necessity to completely stop these attacks...to preserve the high national interest."

Arafat has made such appeals before, including when he went on television to do so under intense international pressure last December, but the suicide bombings have not ceased.

RESISTANCE GROUPS REBUFF CALL TO END ATTACKS ON ISRAEL

Two Palestinian Resistance groups rebuffed on Thursday an appeal by Yasser Arafat to cease violence against Israeli civilians and said such attacks would continue as long as Israel kept killing Palestinian civilians.

Representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have carried out many of the bombings in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, said they considered their attacks to be acts of self-defense under Israeli occupation.

TENSION ON THE BORDER WITH LEBANON

Lebanese Hizbollah Fighters and Israeli occupation troops are reported to be on alert on the tense border between the two countries.

Observers and foreign diplomats say that although the Lebanon-Israeli front is calm the potential for trouble can't be ignored. Escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence, desire on the part of Lebanese Resistance fighters and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to help the Palestinians, neighboring Syria's efforts to influence any Mideast settlement and even dangerous rhetoric could lead to fighting, according to the sources.

Hizbollah guns opened up on a high-flying jet with seven shells from a 57-mm gun near the border, Lebanese security officials said. Israeli warplanes have been flying reconnaissance missions over Lebanon, occasionally breaking the sound barrier and drawing anti-aircraft fire from Hizbollah fighters. Fragments of Hizbollah shells have crashed in Israeli territory, causing panic among border residents.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israel has Entered W. Bank Palestinian Cities in response to what it calls back-to-back bombings in Jerusalem that killed 26 Israelis over t