RAMALLAH, Dec 3: Israeli soldiers on Tuesday shot dead a 95-year-old Palestinian woman who was taking a taxi home after a medical check-up in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Troops opened fire on the van the woman was riding in when it tried to bypass rubble that Israeli forces had used to block the road between Ramallah and her home village of Atara.

Medics said the woman, Fatima Hassan, who was on her way home from a medical clinic, was hit by a bullet in the back and that two other people in the taxi were wounded, one of them critically.

“We condemn this war crime of killing in cold blood a 95-year-old woman and we hold Israel fully responsible,” Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat said.

Israel has reoccupied most West Bank cities and sealed off their main entrances, funnelling all movement through army checkpoints, following a wave of suicide bombings in the Jewish state.

The Palestinians condemn the military blockade as collective punishment.

Violence has surged in recent days despite calls by the United States for calm in the region as it seeks Arab support for an invasion of Iraq.

The Israeli army said it had arrested 12 Palestinians across the West Bank on Tuesday in a sweep targeting militants suspected of planning and launching suicide attacks.

The army said the suspects were rounded up in the Bethlehem, Al Khalil and Nablus areas.

TWIN ATTACKS: Twin attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel and an Israeli airliner in Mombasa, Kenya, last week have raised the spectre of Israelis being targeted abroad as well.