Israel retaliates after weekend attacks

Israeli soldiers and civilians carry the body of a victim of Sunday's checkpoint attacks.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Israeli army ended an incursion into a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza early Monday and began a separate operation into Jenin in the West Bank as the country vowed more military action against the Palestinian Authority after a bloody weekend of Palestinian attacks left at least 20 Israelis dead.

"We shall pursue the terrorists wherever they are," declared Ephraim Sneh, Israel's deputy defense minister. Israeli helicopters and tanks Sunday hit Palestinian targets in the West Bank.

In Jenin, Palestinian security sources said that Amjad Al-Fakhouri -- a prominent member of the Al Aqsa Brigades, the militant wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement -- was killed Monday in an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers.

The moves into the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza and Jenin in the West Bank came shortly after the Israeli security Cabinet met and decided to continue military pressure on the Palestinian Authority.

The Israel Defense Forces described the move into Gaza as a "small, targeted activity," unlike incursions last week into two West Bank refugee camps.

Israel's heightened military action comes in the wake of several attacks over the weekend. They began Saturday when with a suicide bombing outside a Jerusalem synagogue. Nine Israelis, including a baby girl, were killed in the terror attack. Dozens more were hurt.

VIDEO CNN's Jerrold Kessel recaps a weekend filled with violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank (March 3) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Video of the aftermath of the attack in Jerusalem. (March 2) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES • Barak: New Palestinian leadership needed  • Reactions to the suicide bombing    EXTRA INFORMATION Gallery:  Images from the aftermath   RESOURCES On the Scene: More Mideast bloodshed

The bloodshed continued Sunday with Palestinian attacks on two Israeli military checkpoints that left 11 Israelis dead.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attacks, including the bombing.

Islamic Jihad -- a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel -- also claimed responsibility for one of the shootings.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the attacks on Israeli civilians.

"We are a people under occupation, and there are no people on Earth today who will accept to live under occupation at all," said Minister of Information Yasser Abed Rabbo. "It's our right to resist occupation, but we condemn turning this resistance into attacks against Israeli civilians."

The Palestinians promised reprisals after the Israeli army entered the West Bank refugee camps of Balata and Jenin Thursday. The operations, which continued though the weekend, were the first major incursions into Palestinian camps in the past 18 months.

At least 25 Palestinians were killed during the operations, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said. Two Israeli soldiers died.

Four Palestinian policemen died in Sunday's violence as Israeli forces fired on Palestinian military positions in what they described as retaliatory strikes.

The IDF said its primary targets were Palestinian police posts and checkpoints, which it said terrorists pass through to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Israeli forces Sunday pulled out of Balata to the periphery, where they were prepared to continue operations, the IDF said.

The army said it pulled out of Jenin Saturday but re-entered the camp Sunday, and Palestinian sources said a firefight ensued. (Full story)

Conflict intensifies

Earlier Sunday, Israeli Cobra helicopters fired on a Palestinian weapons factory in the area of Bethlehem, the IDF said.

Palestinian sources said Israeli helicopters fired at a police station near Arafat's compound in Ramallah.

The Palestinian sources also said Israeli tanks fired at two Palestinian military bases in Ramallah, killing a Palestinian police officer, and at targets in the el-Amari refugee camp.

An injured Palestinian is carried toward an ambulance Sunday after shelling in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Another Palestinian policeman was killed by an Israeli tank round near Nablus, the Red Crescent said Sunday. Israeli security sources said soldiers were firing at a Palestinian training installation.

In another incident, two Palestinian policemen were killed when Israeli tanks fired on a Palestinian post in Kalkilya.

Sneh said the hunt for Palestinian terrorists would continue.

"If they think they have some immunity in the refugee camps, they are mistaken and we've proved it," Sneh said.

"We will pursue these factories of the missiles, the place where they coach the suicide bombers. We will reach them everywhere."

Israeli fatalities

Of the 11 Israelis who died in checkpoint attacks, 10 of them -- including six soldiers -- were shot Sunday at a West Bank military position near the Israeli settlement of Ofra between Nablus and Ramallah, Israeli security sources said.

The sources said a Palestinian gunman opened fire from a hillside on a convoy of cars traveling through the checkpoint. Fourteen others were injured in the shooting. The gunman was still at large.

Another Israeli was killed at the Kissufim Crossing on the Gaza-Israel border when a Palestinian gunman fired on a military position, the Israeli army said.

The nine dead from Saturday's terrorist bombing in Jerusalem included a woman and her 7-month-old child, a couple and their two daughters, ages 5 and 2, and their two cousins, ages 10 and 18 months, who were siblings. The blast wounded at least 57. (Full story)

"It was crazy. There were kids and adults running all over the place. I saw one woman sitting on the pavement screaming that her son had been killed," a 22-year-old man told Reuters. (Full story)

The violence came on the heels of a Saudi Arabian peace proposal that calls for recognition of Israel and full normalization of ties with the Arab world in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories back to the borders in place before the 1967 Six-Day War.