The commander of an elite Israeli army unit has been killed during an incursion into the West Bank village of Saida, military sources said.
A Palestinian was also killed during the raid.
With helicopters hovering overhead, Israeli forces swept into Saida, northeast of the city of Tulkarm, just after dawn, and came under fire from gunmen in the village, the army said. The village is under full Palestinian civil and military rule.
Palestinian police in the village said soliders demolished one house belonging to an activist of the militant group Islamic Jihad and searched houses for militants.
Israeli tanks and infantrymen later entered the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, Palestinian security sources said, in the second Israeli incursion this week.
Israeli tanks, armored bulldozers and jeeps also rolled into a civilian area south of Gaza City destroying several houses, a police position and at least 100 hectares of farmland, Palestinian security sources said.
Soliders also entered the northern West Bank village of Jaba and arrested two Islamic Jihad militants, suspected of attacking Israelis in the northern West Bank, the army said.
The village is under the civilian administration of the Palestinian Authority but under joint Palestinian-Israeli military control.
AFPand