Palestinian Militia Leader Killed By NASSER SHIYOUKHI : Associated Press Writer Aug 15, 2001 : 3:54 am ET

HEBRON, West Bank (AP) -- Israeli undercover troops killed a Palestinian militia leader in a shooting ambush in the town of Hebron on Wednesday, hours after an Israeli paratrooper company took position at the entrance of another West Bank town in a warning to Palestinian gunmen.

The militia leader, Emad Abu Sneineh, 25, was killed by a burst of fire as he got out of a car near his home, said Nabil Abu Sneineh, a relative. The shots were fired by undercover troops from a parked blue-and-white truck, the witness said.

Israeli security officials would not comment by name, but said privately that Abu Sneineh was killed by elite Israeli forces because he had been heavily involved in shooting attacks on Israelis in Hebron. There was no attempt to arrest him, the officials said.

In recent months, Israel has killed more than 50 Palestinians, most suspected militants, in targeted attacks. Israel has said it is acting in self-defense and that killing the militants was often the only way to stop attacks on Israelis. However, the practice has been widely condemned, including by the United States.

The Bush administration has also criticized Israeli forays into Palestinian territory.

At the U.S. State Department in Washington, spokesman Philip Reeker said Israel's incursion into the West Bank town of Jenin on Tuesday was "provocative."

It was the first raid of a Palestinian town since West Bank population centers were handed to Palestinian control in 1995. Israel has said several Palestinian suicide bombers came from the Jenin area, and that it wanted to pressure the Palestinian Authority to arrest militants before they could strike.

President Bush said Tuesday he was worried violence would escalate. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "must clamp down on the suicide bombers," Bush said, "and the Israelis must show restraint."

On Tuesday evening, Israeli troops and tanks took positions near Beit Jalla, following a heavy exchange of fire between Palestinian gunmen and soldiers protecting nearby Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed to Jerusalem.

Israeli troops stopped short of entering Palestinian-controlled Beit Jalla. It was not clear Wednesday whether Israel had intended to enter Beit Jalla, and the incursion was aborted at the last minute, or whether the troop buildup was intended as a warning from the start.

On Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, David Satterfield, and told him Israel would no longer tolerate shooting attacks on Gilo, Israeli officials said.

Earlier in the day, Sharon had warned that if violence continues, "the Palestinians will lose additional assets, and they have something to lose."

Israeli radio, meanwhile, said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres called Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a fellow member of the moderate Labor Party, and asked him to hold off on an incursion.

Peres, who has been given reluctant permission by Sharon to resume contacts with Palestinian officials, told Ben-Eliezer he wanted to speak to the Palestinian leadership first about stopping the shooting attacks on Gilo, the report said.

Peres said Wednesday he was pleased by the outcome.

"I think the moment the Palestinians decided to stop the fire there was no need for further intervention and I'm glad that the fire has been stopped and the intervention became unnecessary," he said.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has intensified over the past week, with two Palestinian suicide bombings in Jerusalem and near the city of Haifa, followed by Israel's takeover of Orient House -- the Palestinian political headquarters in Jerusalem -- and the incursion into Jenin.

Palestinian militants remained defiant.

"If Sharon is going to escalate by invading cities, I believe that the Palestinians will escalate their resistance," said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a leader of Hamas, the Islamic movement that has carried out the deadliest bomb attacks in Israel.

Palestinians appealed to the U.N. Security Council, hoping for a resolution that would create an international observer force. Israel has harshly opposed posting observers, fearing that they would blame Israel for every incident of violence, and the United States has twice blocked Arab moves in the Security Council.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001