One of the most violent days of the intifada in recent weeks, with nine Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, came as the Israeli government ordered the occupation army to "turn up the heat" on the Palestinians.Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz commanded the occupation army to "step up the pressure and act with all the force required against terrorists wherever they are," the ministry said Friday.

A spokesman for the ministry of defence added that the order to "turn up the heat" on the Palestinians was issued by Mofaz during a meeting with the country's top brass and the Shin Beth internal security services on Thursday.

The fresh crackdown on suspected Palestinian resistance men in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which has been reoccupied since June and systematically raided and combed by the occupation army, followed one day after Christmas and after a four-week lull in attacks inside Israel.

Nine Palestinians were killed in the occupied territories Thursday as the occupation army seized the initiative in its bid to "dismantle terrorist infrastructure".

Most of the violence stemmed from Israeli commando operations to snatch resistance men during the lifting of the daytime curfew in West Bank towns.

The bloodshed fueled fears resistance groups would escalate their own attacks in revenge after more than a month without a major bombing or shooting in Israel.

Most of the main Palestinian factions are currently engaged in talks aimed at harmonising their positions and halting resistance attacks, while many commentators also suspect Palestinians are curbing their violence to bolster the centre-left Israeli Labour party in upcoming elections.

Following the killing of one of its leaders near the northern West Bank city of Jenin Thursday, the hardline Islamic Jihad group vowed "this ugly crime will not go unpunished."

Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP that Israel was "reverting to its policy of assassinations and house demolitions for electoral reasons and with the goal of sabotaging the efforts being deployed to ease the situation."

After clashes which left two Palestinians dead and around 30 wounded in Nablus, the head of the northern West Bank city's intelligence services Talal Dwikat accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of adopting get-tough policies to curry favour with Israeli right-wingers ahead of January elections.

"With the elections coming up and despite four weeks of calm, Sharon wants to revert the situation to a cycle of violence, and operations by undercover units are aimed at provoking a reaction from Palestinian groups," he told AFP.

Since the summer, the occupation army has switched from sweeping and hard-hitting operations to long-term less spectacular deployments, with daily pinpoint arrest campaigns and house demolitions.

The Israeli occupation army continued to operate on its daily rhythm Friday, rounding up 15 resistance men from Islamic groups in the Jenin area, Palestinian security sources.

Sharon's tough policies have earned him strong popular support through his term as prime minister, and with the elections four weeks away, they seem to be paying off again.

The latest poll published Friday by the Yediot Aharonot daily showed his Likud party has hardly suffered from the graft scandal.

Labour leader Amram Mitzna, who will challenge Sharon in the January 28 legislative elections, accused his rival of sowing panic among the population to divert attention from the corruption allegations which have marred Likud's march to re-election.

But the accusations appeared to have had little effect on Sharon's popularity ratings, as Likud remained steady. The Yediot poll predicted the party would muster 35 seats in the next parliament, compared to 22 seats for Labour.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians look from outside at bullet holes in the window