GAZA, March 8: Israeli forces inflicted the bloodiest losses on the Palestinians on a single day in 17 months of the intifada on Friday, killing 40 people in fierce raids after a deadly attack on a Jewish settlement.

Israel’s air, land and sea assaults on the West Bank and Gaza Strip followed Washington’s surprise announcement that it was sending its Middle East envoy back to the region to reactivate long-dormant US peacemaking efforts.

Amid a deepening cycle of retribution, the Palestinian death toll in the uprising against Israeli occupation broke through the 1,000-mark while the number of Israeli fatalities stood at nearly 320.

A general, a nine-year-old boy, a hospital administrator and an ambulance worker were among Friday’s Palestinian dead.

A Palestinian killed five Israelis on Thursday night in a settlement in the Gaza Strip, drawing a punishing Israeli sweep through a village. An Israeli soldier was also killed in fighting in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank.

With violence escalating by the hour, US President George W. Bush said on Thursday that he was sending Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni back to the region next week to seek a ceasefire to end the months of bloodletting.

“I am deeply concerned about the tragic loss of life and escalating violence in the Middle East,” Bush said in Washington. “There are no assurances (of success). That’s not going to prevent our government from trying.”

Bush’s decision to try again to halt the fighting followed Arab and international calls for the United States to re-engage in an eye-for-an-eye conflict that has defeated peacemakers.

It will also refocus attention on a US-based plan for a truce leading to talks that Washington sees as a first step before a wider Saudi proposal for Arab-Israeli peace can be pursued.

Following a strategy charted by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to hit the Palestinians hard until they sue for peace, the Israeli army sent troops and tanks backed by helicopters into Bethlehem.

Seven Palestinians, including a hospital director shot in the head while driving to work, were killed and scores wounded in heavy fighting in towns and refugee camps bordering the Palestinian-ruled city, in the West Bank.—Reuters