Israeli troops seized positions in Palestinian-ruled Beit Jala today and sent bulldozers into a refugee camp in southern Gaza hours after Israel assassinated a top Palestinian leader.
A Palestinian security officer was killed and seven people were wounded as Israeli troops surged into Beit Jala, a West Bank town facing the Jewish settlement of Gilo which Israel says is a neighborhood of Jerusalem.
A Palestinian official condemned the early morning raid, which followed the killing of Abu Ali Mustafa whom Israel accused of masterminding bombings, as a reoccupation of Palestinian areas paving the way for a Middle East war.
In the overnight raid into the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, 12 people were wounded and 15 buildings, which the Israelis said provided cover for snipers and arms smugglers, were wrecked before the army pulled out.
The Israeli thrust into Beit Jala appeared to be in response to renewed fire on Gilo in which an Israeli was wounded.
The outbreak of shooting came amid Palestinian anger over Monday's killing of Mr Mustafa, chief of a Palestinian radical faction, and a bloody weekend in which 11 people died in fighting that all but doused hopes for truce talks between the sides.
Mr Mustafa, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), died instantly in a missile attack on his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah which drew international condemnation.
Israeli cabinet secretary Mr Gideon Saar said the army's stay in Beit Jala would be for "a limited period of time in line with our assessment of the situation and in line with the aim of the operation which is to protect residents of Gilo."
Israeli cabinet ministers were expected to meet later today to discuss the raid.