NABLUS, Nov 12: Israeli armoured vehicles on Tuesday swept into Tulkarem Palestinian refugee camp in the northern West Bank after an attack on an Israeli kibbutz claimed five lives, Palestinian sources said.

Israeli troops opened fire from some 20 tanks, jeeps and armoured personnel carriers, Palestinian security officials said. It was not clear if there were victims.

The Israeli army was expected to launch massive incursions into the northern West Bank towns of Nablus and Tulkarem, both regarded as hotbeds of militancy, modelled on a 17-day operation in Jenin which some 1,000 troops wrapped up on Sunday.

A mother and her two children, aged four and five, as well as two other adults, were gunned down by an unknown man who sprayed automatic rifle fire on residents of Kibbutz Metzer after he infiltrated the collective village on Sunday.

The Israeli army started scaling back its forces in Jenin after an operation that culminated in the killing of the regional head of Islamic Jihad, who was blamed for two suicide attacks which killed 31 Israelis and injured scores more.

Some 200 wanted Palestinians were rounded up in the operation by about 1,000 Israeli troops, the army said.

Tuesday’s incursion was the first time that the right-wing government of Ariel Sharon had to decide on military action since the departure on Oct 30 of ministers of the Labour party, who were seen as a moderating influence.

The kibbutz attack was claimed by Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed offshoot of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, which said it was revenge for the army’s killing of an Islamic Jihad chief blamed by Israel for suicide bomb attacks which killed 31 Israelis.

But the Fatah leadership later disavowed that claim and reiterated its condemnation of all attacks targeting civilians.

“Fatah has no link with this operation ... nor with the statement from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claiming it,” a statement from an “official spokesman” of the movement said.

Israeli premier Sharon was still resisting calls from new hawks in his cabinet for the expulsion of Arafat, despite his government’s persistent efforts to lay the blame for attacks by militant groups at his door, public radio said.

Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a hardline former premier, had called for Israel to “get rid” of Arafat, although Sharon has opposed the move.

Netanyahu was appointed last week after the centre-left Labour party walked out of Sharon’s coalition, causing the government to lurch to the right.

In an unusual move, Sharon and newly-appointed Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz attended the funerals at the Metzer kibbutz, while Arab neighbours of the left-wing community, which staunchly advocates Palestinians’ rights, also went to pay their respects.

The violence further complicates US envoy David Satterfield’s mission to the region, which was aimed at discussing a new “roadmap” for peace with both parties and regional players.

The plan, which calls for a de facto Palestinian state to be established next year with provisional borders, and a definitive state by 2005, was discussed with Arab governments by US envoy William Burns during a regional tour last month.

It also calls for an end to armed Palestinian attacks and an Israeli army withdrawal from reoccupied Palestinian cities.

Both sides have approved it in principle but demand more time to hold consultations and let the dust settle after periods of internal political upheaval.

The plan was given strong support on Monday by key US ally Britain, whose Prime Minister Tony Blair said the only answer to rising violence was “an Israeli state, recognized by all, and a viable Palestinian state”.—AFP