In what appeared to be a shift in its policy in Gaza, the Israeli army seized a chunk of territory in the northern part of the Strip yesterday, saying it was setting up a "security zone" aimed at preventing militants from firing rockets at towns inside Israel.
In the West Bank, two armed Palestinians dressed as seminary students last night infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba and shot dead two people, before they were killed by soldiers who arrived at the scene of the attack.
In Gaza, soldiers yesterday held positions in the area of the town of Beit Hanoun and the Jabalya refugee camp from where the army says the rockets have been fired. Troops also uprooted vegetation the military said was being used as cover by those launching the rockets.
For the last three weeks the army has been conducting raids deep inside Gaza, but the troops have always pulled out after several hours. Asked whether the capturing of a swathe of territory meant the army was reoccupying part of the Strip, Col Yoel Strick, commander of Israeli forces in northern Gaza, replied: "Yes, indeed."
He refused, however, to put a time limit on the operation. "If we decide it is necessary," he said, "we will hold on to this area for the forseeable future."
In recent weeks the southern Israeli town of Sderot has been hit by Qassam rockets - rudimentary weapons produced by Hamas, with an 8km range - as the army has carried out almost daily raids against strongholds of the militant Islamic group in Gaza. There have been no serious injuries in the rocket attacks.
Several rockets were fired on Thursday at Sderot after the army killed 11 Palestinians in a raid in the Jabalya refugee camp earlier in the day.
Three gunmen were shot dead by troops in Gaza yesterday, after they opened fire on a convoy of Jewish settlers.
Against the backdrop of increasing violence, the process of approving a new Palestinian Authority prime minister is to begin today in Ramallah, with a meeting of the PLO's Central Council, which will be followed by a meeting of the Palestinian legislature on Monday.
A senior PLO official, Mr Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), said yesterday he was still waiting to hear the extent of the powers he would be granted as prime minister before taking on the post offered him on Thursday by the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
"The position is not as important as the powers of the prime minister. . . I will respond positively or negatively after I know what powers the prime minister will have," said Abu Mazen, a moderate who has criticised the armed nature of the Palestinian uprising.