Israeli tanks pounded Palestinian targets in Gaza and its helicopters swept into action to retaliate for mortar attacks in Israel as the cycle of bloodshed continued despite security talks this week.
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A Palestinian woman kisses her son, Ahmed Mahmoud al-Atar (15), in a Gaza City morgue, after he was shot by Israeli soldiers near Netzarim yesterday.
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Hospital sources said at least 30 Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, were injured in clashes with Israeli troops. The Israeli army said two Israeli women were slightly wounded when stones were hurled at their car near Bethlehem.
The teenager was critically wounded by live rounds during a stone-throwing clash with Israeli soldiers in the Al-Khader village near Bethlehem, the hospital sources said.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement said an Israeli undercover unit had kidnapped two of its men in an Israeli-ruled area near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The army was not immediately available for comment.
The fresh violence and yesterday's killing of an Islamic militant in a phone booth explosion followed US-arranged Israeli-Palestinian security talks earlier in the week that failed to end the fighting.
Israeli Defence Minister Mr Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the goal of Israel's military operations was to push Arafat back to the negotiating table.
"I think Arafat is a partner (to peace) and I will continue to see him as a partner", Mr Ben-Eliezer told Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.
Israel attacked amid international criticism of its plan to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
France and Egypt followed Washington's tough reaction to the plan with statements today. Egypt said Palestinians could not be blamed for reacting to the Israeli provocation.