TEL AVIV, Oct 6: Violence boiled over in the West Bank city of Al Khalil on Saturday night as two Palestinian family members were shot dead, while Israel rebuffed a peace feeler from Syria.

The two Palestinians were shot dead as gunfights raged between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, who had raided Arab-controlled neighbourhoods in the flashpoint city one day earlier.

A senior Israeli official dismissed the latest Syrian bid to resume peace talks as “nothing new”. The fresh fighting and acrimonious exchange with Syria came as Israel’s main ally Washington looked to calm the Middle East on the eve of its war against terror.

Washington ripped Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday for his derogatory comments regarding the US campaign to draw Arab and other Muslim nations into the alliance against Osama bin Laden.

Sharon offered a mea culpa to the White House later on Friday, expressing his “appreciation” for Israel’s special relationship with the United States.

Sharon had set the United States on notice on Thursday that Israel’s security would not be a casualty of Bush’s efforts to seek common cause with Arab states.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld returned to Washington on Saturday after a four-day tour of the Middle East and Central Asia during which he alleviated Arab concerns, but did not obtain any open pledges of military backing.

Amjad al-Kawasmi, 22, was killed by an Israeli bullet while driving with his father close to the clashes between soldiers and Palestinian fighters.

A member of the same family, Hamzeh al-Kawasmi, 24, was shot dead in the same al-Sheikh neighbourhood, one of two Palestinian-controlled quarters raided by Israeli troops early on Friday morning, after gunmen shot two female Jewish pilgrims visiting for the holiday of Sukkot.

Five Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded in the dawn incursion. The death toll for the year-old Palestinian uprising now stands at 864, including 666 Palestinians and 175 Israelis.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres called on Saturday for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to crack down once and for all on hardline groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in a bid to save their tattered truce agreement. More than 40 people have been killed since the two leaders reached a ceasefire-consolidating deal.