Kamal Ahmed, secretary general of Fatah's Bethlehem branch, accused Israel of assassinating Mohammed Abayat of the Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in a bid to undermine a security agreement under which Israeli forces withdrew from Bethlehem two months ago.

Ahmed's death on Sunday came just hours after two Palestinians, one a toddler, were killed and more than 30 wounded in the Gaza Strip when Israeli troops raided a crowded refugee camp to raze houses it said contained arms-smuggling tunnels.

The raid in Rafah coincided with revelations that the United States, Israel's main international ally, had criticized the Jewish state for failing to ease living conditions for ordinary Palestinians and for raids in which civilians have been killed.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the death of Abayat. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades have killed scores of Israelis in suicide bombings during a two-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

Abayat's death heightened tensions and shattered weeks of calm in the Bethlehem area in the West Bank ahead of talks in Washington on Wednesday between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush.

The Israeli pullout from Bethlehem two months ago was seen as a test case for further troop withdrawals from other West Bank cities reoccupied in June after suicide bombings in Israel.

Palestinians, and some Israeli politicians, have accused Sharon of using what Israel calls "targeted killings" of militants as a way to sabotage peace efforts that would force Israel to relinquish land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

Sharon has said he is dedicated to finding a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but Palestinian "terrorism" must first be stopped.

Many of the attacks on militants, which Israel describes as necessary to protect its citizens, were followed by deadly revenge bombings against Israelis -- cycles of violence that have frustrated international peace efforts.

In public comments last week, the chief of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, said Fatah militants had ceased their attacks inside Israel.

Israeli media reports quoted leaders of the al-Aqsa brigades as saying Abayat's death meant the attacks would resume.

Abayat, 25, was a member of a Bethlehem clan well-known for its local leadership of the brigades. Two of his relatives have been killed in Israeli strikes against them.

A bloodstain on the street marked the spot in the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala where his charred body fell after an explosion blew apart a telephone booth as he made a call.

GAZA RAID

Addressing his cabinet, Sharon said Israel "has a great interest in easing up on Palestinians who are not involved in terrorism."

But he said "the Palestinian Authority is not enabling Israel to move forward as fast as we would like with this policy," a reference to what Sharon has called Arafat's failure to rein in militants.

In southern Israel, soldiers shot dead two Palestinian gunmen who tried to penetrate the town of Yevul near the frontier with Egypt, a few kilometers (miles) from the border with Gaza. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the clash.

The Israel-Egypt border has been largely quiet since Egypt signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979.

At least 1,612 Palestinians and 604 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising for statehood erupted two years ago after peace talks stalled.

(China Daily October 14, 2002)