BBC

Friday, 6 April, 2001, 02:56 GMT 03:56 UK

Israel launches more helicopter raids

Israeli helicopter gunships have been in action over the Gaza Strip in an escalating cycle of violence, bombarding buildings of the Palestinian security forces.

The attacks - apparently in retaliation for mortar fire at Israeli villages close to the border - injured five people, including two police officers, and knocked out power to thousands of Palestinian homes.

Earlier the United States issued a rare double rebuke to Israel, criticising moves to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank and protesting at an incident in which Israeli troops fired on the motorcade of three top Palestinian security officials.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called the Israeli announcement of new settlement buildings inflammatory and "provocative".

Also on Thursday, a senior member of the militants Palestinian group Islamic Jihad was killed in an Israeli bomb attack.

Settlement expansion

The Israeli housing ministry has published plans for more than 700 new homes for Jewish settlers in Maale Adumim near Jerusalem and in Alfei Menashe near Nablus.

The State Department's Mr Boucher said that, at such a sensitive and volatile time in the Middle East, both sides needed to show the utmost restraint.

"Continuing settlement activity by Israel does risk further inflaming an already volatile situation in the region", he said.

And he added: "This is provocative and we have consistently encouraged both sides to refrain from provocative acts".

Israeli settlement activity on land it captured in 1967 is illegal in the eyes international law, and opposition to it is one of the key elements of the current Palestinian uprising.

Left-wing Israelis have also criticised the housing ministry plan.

Militant killed

Tensions were already high before the housing ministry announcement, following the killing of an Islamic Jihad militant and a shooting incident between the Israeli army and Palestinian security officials.

Iyad Hardan, a leader of the extremist group Islamic Jihad, died in blast at a telephone booth he used regularly in the West Bank town of Jenin.

Palestinians have called the death an assassination. There has been no official Israeli comment on the incident.

Israel has a policy of targeting individuals it believes poses a threat to its citizens.

Increased violence

Over the last 10 days, there have been three bomb blasts against Israeli targets and several major Israeli air raids over Palestinian areas.

There have also been mortar bomb attacks on both sides, sniper fire and heavy gunfights.

Late on Wednesday night three of the Palestinian Authority's top security officials were fired on by Israeli troops as they returned from a meeting with Israeli domestic security officials.

Palestinian Preventive Security Chief in the Gaza Strip Mohammed Dahlan said it was an assassination attempt, although the army said its troops were fired on first.

On Thursday, a 15-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops after throwing stones at them.

Israeli security forces also defused two bombs on Thursday, one along a road used by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and one in the coastal town of Netanya.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001