OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, May 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As Israeli occupation forces made an incursion into Gaza City, destroying three factories, a Palestinian resistance fighter blew himself up outside a nightclub in Tel Aviv early Friday, May 24, in the fourth martyr operation since Sunday, May 19.  

The latest martyr operation came one day after a martyr bomber, who avenged Israel’s assassination of a Palestinian man in Beirut, hit Rishon Letsion, a Tel Aviv suburb, killing himself and two others and leaving some 30 wounded. 

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the Wednesday, May 22nd attack, after Israeli forces assassinated three of its members in the West Bank that same evening.

"We have avenged the murder of Jihad Jibril [in Beirut] as well as the deaths of four Palestinians today [Wednesday] in Nablus and hundreds of others in the occupied territories," the group said in a statement.

Jihad Jibril was son of Ahmed Jibril, chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Jihad was killed by a car bomb in Beirut Monday, May 20.

Israel army radio said Friday, May 24, that a security guard working at the Columbarian nightclub in Tel Aviv noticed a suspicious car moving towards the entrance of the club and opened fire on the driver, causing a huge explosion, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The latest Palestinian bomber was killed and two bystanders were injured, one lightly to moderately and the other suffering from shock, the radio added.

Israel public radio said the guard had shouted at the clubbers standing in the street to lie on the ground, then opened fire on the car.

It was not initially clear whether the Palestinian detonated a charge he was wearing or whether the car was loaded with explosives which went off when the guard opened fire, said AFP.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces staged an incursion into Gaza City early Friday, destroying three factories before they pulled out, Palestinian security sources and witnesses told AFP.

Several Israeli tanks and jeeps moved more than two kilometers into Palestinian territory, targeting factories in the industrial zone of Zeitoun in the south of Gaza City, security sources said.

During the incursion, Israeli forces laid explosive charges in a metal factory, a fiberglass factory and a timber production facility, completely destroying the three structures, local witnesses said.

No one was injured in the incident and the army pulled some out three hours later, security sources said.

Israeli military sources claimed one building had allegedly been used for manufacturing mortar shells, but did not comment on the other two.

The Israeli occupation army on Thursday, May 23, looked poised to invade the Gaza Strip as it had done the West Bank the month before.

Tanks rolled into Palestinian-controlled areas of Hebron and smaller West Bank towns around Jenin and Israeli forces abducted 19 Palestinians, Israeli and Palestinian security sources said.

Israel abducted more than 4,000 Palestinians in its West Bank offensive last month, 1,100 of whom are still detained. The deadly offensive, especially the massacre in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin which drew world condemnation, triggered counteroffensives from the Palestinians who struck back with a wave of martyr bombings.

The ability of Palestinian fighter bombers to retaliate by striking at the heart of Israel was underscored when a bomb in a tanker truck triggered a fire at the Gelilot fuel depot, the largest in the country.

Israeli public radio said the bomb had been placed in the cab of the vehicle and exploded by means of a mobile phone. It set the truck on fire but firemen were quick to react and bring the blaze under control.

On the diplomatic front, U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated in Berlin that peace in the Middle East hinged on Israel and a new Palestinian state living peacefully side by side, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, Israeli public radio reported that CIA Director George Tenet and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns were to arrive in Israel next week to debate promised reforms in the Palestinian Authority.

Although it was not clear from the report exactly when the two were expected to arrive, the radio said Tenet would be discussing reform of the Palestinian security services, and would be looking to encourage a resumption of security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians.

Burns' trip would be focused on the reforms within the Palestinian Authority itself, the radio said.

But U.S. consulate spokeswoman Pat Kabra denied the report, saying it was "very unlikely" they would be coming next week.