Seven Palestinians are killed in Israeli sweep in West Bank

Associated Press WriterJERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli troops raided four Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank early Friday, killing seven Palestinians in gunbattles and arresting dozens of suspected militants in the most extensive sweep in 15 months of fighting.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes attacked a compound of Force 17, a Palestinian security service. The attack in Gaza City was the third straight night of air strikes this week, part of Israel's reprisal for a bus attack by Islamic militants that killed 10 Israelis.

An American envoy, who had been trying for the past three weeks to negotiate a truce, left for Jordan on Friday, and it was not immediately clear when he would resume his mission, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. mediation effort, led by envoy Anthony Zinni, has been stymied by the sharp escalation in fighting in recent days, Israel's decision to sever ties with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leader's apparent reluctance to confront militants.

Zinni met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon late Thursday, seeking clarifications about how Israel's decision to shun Arafat would affect cease-fire talks. A Sharon adviser, Raanan Gissin, said Israel had "not written off" Zinni's mission.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who negotiated interim peace deals with Arafat, said he told Sharon that the decision to shun the Palestinian Authority was short-sighted.

"I asked him (Sharon), 'Suppose Arafat disappears, what will happen then?"' Peres told the Yediot Ahronot daily in an interview published Friday. "If we chase Arafat out of here, we will get into problems with the Arab world, and Egypt and Jordan will sever ties with us."

Peres also said some of Israel's military strikes against the Palestinians made him "shudder," but that he was ready to admit he was wrong if the reprisals stopped attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants.

Early Friday, Israeli tanks and troops moved into four West Bank towns and villages -- Hebron, Dura, Salfit and Assira Ashmalia. Israeli forces searched the villages and made dozens of arrests, in what Brig. Gen. Gershon Itzhak, the division commander in the West Bank, said it was the biggest sweep in 15 months of fighting.

In Palestinian-ruled Salfit, near the city of Nablus, Israeli troops killed six Palestinian policemen in a gun battle, Palestinian doctors said. Army bulldozers also destroyed two houses in the village. After the raid, Israeli tanks drove out of Salfit in a convoy, and soldiers sitting on the armored vehicles flashed victory signs.

In Hebron, Israeli soldiers raided a house, killing a Palestinian man in a gunfight and wounding another. A third suspect escaped, the Israeli military said.

In Gaza, Palestinians said Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered a refugee camp across from a bloc of Israeli settlements and destroyed 10 houses and a factory. Three people were hurt, one seriously. The Israeli military said its forces destroyed a number of buildings to reduce gunfire at the settlements.

Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh charged that Israel is trying to sabotage international peace efforts. "This is a comprehensive war against the Palestinian people, its elected leadership and the peace process," he said.

Palestinian officials said they cannot continue their operations against the militants because of the Israeli strikes. The Palestinian Authority suspended a day-old order closing all offices of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, groups that have claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings, including suicide attacks that have killed scores of Israelis and injured hundreds.