Six Palestinians were killed, including a toddler crushed when Israeli occupation forces dynamite a house in the Gaza Strip and an activist was assassinated in Bethlehem, jeopardising talk of a fresh Israeli pullback from the West Bank. The latest killing of a child in the town of Rafah on the Egyptian border, where at least five youths were killed in Israeli raids last week, will put extra pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he heads Monday for Washington, which has called for restraint in Israel's increasingly frequent raids into the territory.

An explosion targeting an activist linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement sparked threats of retaliation against Israel and dismissal of proposals by Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer for an extended security understanding in the West Bank.

Four-year-old Tawfiq Bereka was killed by falling masonry as Israeli occupation soldiers dynamited a nearby house with a charge so strong it destroyed his house and the one next door in Rafah, a battered border town that has been rocked by frequent raids.

Another 25 people were injured in the blast, set off by Israeli occupation forces searching for tunnels used to smuggle weapons under the Israeli-controlled border from Egypt.

Palestinian officials said 55 buildings were severely damaged by the blast, adding that the injured including the dead boy's baby sister and his grandfather, as well as two pregnant women.

Earlier Sunday, another Palestinian was shot dead and four wounded as the Israeli occupation forces entered Rafah.

Later in the day, a Palestinian woman and two toddlers, aged four months and 18 months, were wounded by Israeli tank fire in the town.

Two Palestinian resistance men trying to break into Israel through the Egyptian border were intercepted and killed by Israeli forces near a village in the Negev desert. Two Israeli occupation soldiers were slightly hurt.

And near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, a Palestinian woman was shot dead and two girls injured when an Israeli tank opened fire with a heavy machine-gun on their taxi, Palestinian medics said.

Against the backdrop of increased violence, Sharon was to head Monday to Washington for a meeting with US President George W. Bush, who has pressed Israel to tone down its hard line to avoid sparking Arab ire and hampering US plans for military action against Iraq.

Occupation army radio said Sunday that US ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer had passed on a message to Sharon criticising the former general for refusing to relieve conditions in the territories and stem the killing of civilians.

After a cabinet meeting Sunday to mull the US demands Ben Eliezer said he was planning to revive a stalled plan whereby Israeli forces pull out of reoccupied towns if Palestinian police curb anti-Israeli attacks.

The plan was implemented successfully in Bethlehem and was due to continue in Gaza and Hebron, but collapsed amid renewed fighting in Gaza. The minister said he was eyeing a pullback from Hebron.

"We've tried the Gaza and Bethlehem First (plan) but in Gaza it didn't work, so we want to implement the Bethlehem model in Hebron", he said en route to a 48-hour visit to Paris.

But the evening blast in Bethlehem which killed 27-year-old Mohammed Shtiwi Abayat (eds: correct) swiftly undermined Ben Eliezer's proposal, with Fatah accusing the Israeli occupation army of violating the existing agreement in the holy town.

Leaflets circulated by the movement's activists charged that Israel's "killing" of Abayat broke the August understanding under which Israel withdrew from Bethlehem in return for security guarantees.

A statement from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Fatah, indicated that the youngster was one of their leaders and accused Israel of conducting a "targeted killing" of the type condemned by Washington in the past.

"We no longer consider ourselves bound by any agreements or understandings," the group said in reference to the August deal on Bethlehem.

"We will respond with force and there will be no red lines," it warned adding that the adjacent Jewish settlement of Gilo would be its principal target.

In further response to US pressure, public radio said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was to meet a Palestinian delegation this week to renew talks over measures to ease the situation in the territories.

The date of the meeting was not specified and Palestinian officials said they had not been informed

PHOTO CAPTION

A friend of Mohammed Abayat from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades cries out in anger as he looks at the dead body of Mohammed Abayat, 25, in Bethlehem October 13, 2002. The Palestinian resistance man was killed on Sunday in an explosion in a telephone booth near the Photo by Magnus Johansson/Reuters West Bank city of Bethlehem, Palestinian witnesses said. Kamal Ahmed, secretary-general of Fatah's Bethlehem branch, accused Israel of assassinating Abayat.
- Oct 13 6:09 PM