Israeli troops have today thrust into a Palestinian-ruled West Bank town while a bomb rocked an Israeli city.
Palestinian security sources said Israeli soldiers moved about 100 yards into Beit Jala, a town south of Jerusalem which has been a flashpoint of gun battles during more than seven months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Earlier, a Palestinian hospital said it was treating 15 people - one a five-year-old boy and another a civil defense worker - injured by Israeli tank shells in Beit Jala and the Palestinian West Bank town of Al-Khader.
The Israeli army said none of its soldiers was injured in a heavy exchange of fire. A Palestinian security source said Palestinian gunmen forced the Israelis, in tanks and jeeps, to retreat.
In Israel, a bomb blast slightly wounded a woman in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva. Police said four people were treated for shock from the explosion in a rubbish bin near the city bus station during rush hour at the start of Israel's work week.