Israeli troops have shot dead a top Islamic Jihad commander in the occupied West Bank.
Loai Assadi, long a prime target of Israeli forces, had been accused of masterminding several major attacks, including two suicide bombings that killed 10 people in the Jewish state earlier this year.
The Israeli army said it killed Assadi in a gunbattle during a raid in the West Bank town of Tulkarm. An Islamic Jihad source confirmed his death.
He is the most senior Palestinian militant killed since the start of an eight-month-old ceasefire.
It was the latest flare-up of violence threatening to unravel the truce and undermining hopes that Israel's Gaza pullout last month could revive peacemaking.
Troops shot dead another militant, a member of al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, yesterday when they riddled his car with bullets, Palestinian witnesses said.
Although Islamic Jihad has stated its commitment to the truce along with most other militant groups, it has insisted it has the right to respond to Israeli raids. Israel has said it reserves the right to target militants it calls "ticking bombs".