Israeli Troops Kill 5 Palestinian Suspects in Raids

Israeli tanks and troops made a predawn push into the normally tranquil oasis town of Jericho on Sunday, killing a Palestinian man described by an Israeli military source as a “ticking bomb.” Near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, four armed Palestinians were killed early today by Israeli troops, the army said.

The firefight near Rafah broke out as soldiers were trying to arrest an Islamic Jihad operative, according to a military spokesman. The wanted man was among those killed in the exchange of fire, which left an Israeli soldier slightly injured.

In recent months, Rafah and its environs have become some of the most dangerous places in the Palestinian territories.

Israel says it is trying to root out Palestinian militants who use the area as a base for smuggling weapons and attacking Jewish settlements, but Palestinians say heavy and indiscriminate fire constantly rips through a densely populated refugee camp.

In Jericho on Sunday, terrified Palestinians huddled in their homes to escape an hours-long exchange of gunfire between militants and troops, which occurred on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the most important Muslim festival of the year.

Throughout the 40 months of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, palm-fringed Jericho -- in the Judean desert just north of the Dead Sea, the scene of the biblical story of Joshua and the walls tumbling down -- has seen few military confrontations between Israel and the Palestinians.

That changed, however, as Israeli troops and armor surrounded a house where the army said half a dozen wanted Palestinian militants were holed up.

An Israeli military source described the incursion, which ended Sunday afternoon, as a “pinpoint operation.”

But Jericho’s citizens said it endangered civilians within a wide radius.

“The shooting is out of hand,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who lives in the town, told Associated Press early Sunday during the height of the fighting, which Palestinians said wounded seven people. It could not immediately be determined how many were involved in the fighting.

Israelis’ nerves have been on edge since a bus bombing in Jerusalem on Thursday killed 11 passengers, plus the bomber -- a powerful blast that occurred a stone’s throw from the prime minister’s official residence.

An Israeli military source said the Palestinian targeted in the raid, Shahdi Milhim, was involved in planning an imminent attack in an Israeli city, but did not specify the location.

Milhim, 23, was described by Israeli authorities as a leader of the Tanzim, a militia loosely affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction.

Milhim was said by Israeli military sources to have had a background in Palestinian intelligence.

An Israeli military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said troops repeatedly called for Milhim to come out of the surrounded house. After several exchanges of fire, the army brought in a giant armored bulldozer that began demolishing the structure.

It was not immediately clear whether Milhim died of wounds sustained in the firefight or in the partial collapse of the house.

Erekat said two other structures were destroyed during the incursion.

Despite the latest fighting, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei repeated that he was willing to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon without any preconditions.

Israel has not yet responded to that offer, first made on the day of the bus bombing. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, another militia with links to Fatah, said it had staged the Jerusalem attack.

A day later, the Islamic militant group Hamas also claimed responsibility, but Israeli intelligence officials said the bomber’s involvement with Hamas was in question.

Israel Radio, citing sources in the prime minister’s office, said a Korei-Sharon meeting was likely, but not so soon after the bus bombing.

At a meeting Sunday of the Israeli Cabinet, the chief of army intelligence told ministers that the Palestinian Authority was in a state of internal disarray that could lead to Korei being forced out, as was his predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas.

Also at the Cabinet meeting, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said leaders of Hamas remained in danger of being targeted for assassination by Israel.

Last month, the deputy Israeli defense minister, Zeev Boim, caused a stir when he described the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, as a “marked man.”

Yassin stirred Israel’s fury on Friday when he told a rally that Hamas, like the Lebanon-based Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, would seek to kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to win the release of more Palestinian prisoners.

Israel holds approximately 7,000 Palestinians in its prisons, according to Israeli and foreign human rights groups.

A prisoner swap with Hezbollah last week resulted in the freeing of about 400 of them.