RAMALLAH, March 12: The death toll from the intifada soared over the 1,500 mark in less than 18 months on Tuesday as Israel launched its biggest military operation in years, only two days before a peace envoy arrives from an increasingly alarmed United States.

Twenty-eight Palestinians and nine Israelis died during a 24-hour period from Monday midnight. With former US general Anthony Zinni due in the region on Thursday, the Israeli army occupied most of the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority capital, killing five Palestinians.

The invasion followed on the heels of a battle in a Gaza Strip refugee camp on Monday night that left 17 Palestinians dead.

And in what Israeli officials described as the opening of a new intifada front, two unidentified men rained bullets and grenades at traffic on a road near the Lebanese border in northern Israel, killing six Israelis before being shot dead by police.

In Ramallah, where some 100 tanks rumbled into the city at dawn, clashes were taking places in a number of districts of what is considered the capital of the Palestinian Authority, including the Al-Amari refugee camp and the suburb of El-Bireh.

Tanks were on virtually every street corner, even some 100 metres from the offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who was told by Israel on Monday he was free to move about the Palestinian territories after being penned in the town for more than three months.

On Tuesday night, clashes were still taking place at the entrance of Al-Amari and Qadura refugee camps.

The Israeli army’s chief of staff, General Shaul Mofaz, said “the current operation is not only the biggest since the beginning of the intifada, but also the biggest in years”.

The operations prompted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to appeal to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Arafat to lead their peoples “away from disaster”.

Today, more than ever, he said, “you must recognize that security and a political settlement are indivisible”.

A defiant Palestinian leadership said: “Our people will not give way in the face of (Israeli) aggression; they will defend themselves by their historic and courageous resistance.”—AFP