AL QUDS, April 4: Israeli security forces were placed on high alert on Sunday ahead of the Passover holiday as troops shot dead a militant and wounded seven other Palestinians in the northern West Bank.

The government, meanwhile, kept up its campaign of intimidation against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, accusing him of being a bigger obstacle to peace than assassinated Hamas chief Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Security was being especially tightened around Jewish settlements in the West Bank after the killing of a Jewish resident of the northern West Bank settlement of Avnei Hefetz early on Saturday.

The attack was carried out by a member of Hamas, 18-year-old Ramzi Fakhri Arda, who was shot dead by troops stationed nearby. In keeping with its policy, the Israeli army demolished Arda's family home in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Sunday morning.

Another militant, who sources said was a member of Islamic Jihad, was killed in the camp on Sunday as scores of people gathered to pay their condolences to Arda.

Among the other seven casualties injured when troops opened fire on a car was a senior Hamas commander, Khaled Khreweish, who was first taken to hospital in Tulkarem but then detained by Israeli forces, medics said.

An Israeli military source said troops on routine duties in the area opened fire at the car, which had driven at speed toward them. "Every holiday, we know that the terror organizations are taking more active measures in order to attempt to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers," said an army spokesman.

"Due to the high number of alerts that are currently in place, it is therefore well known that IDF (army) forces and border police forces (which cover the West Bank) are being deployed around areas in which Israelis are located." - AFP