Palestinians carry the body of Abu Roub who was killed by Israeli army in the village of Qabatiya

RAMALLAH, West Bank, December 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least eight Palestinians were killed, 30 injured and 20 abducted by the Israeli occupation army on Thursday, December 26, Palestinian security sources said.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, an Israeli undercover unit opened fire at a car killing an alleged Hamas fighter, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Israeli security sources as saying.

Another alleged Hamas fighter who was also inside the car was abducted by the Israeli forces.

As the Israeli army jeeps zoomed out of the city through the busy streets, Israeli soldiers also shot dead a young stone-thrower, Palestinian sources confirmed.

Mustafa Barghuti, the head of the main Palestinian NGO society, was on the scene of the second killing which took place as crowds of people were out shopping.

"This is unbelievable. There is no security, everybody feels vulnerable in the territories, even when the curfew is lifted," he told AFP.

The daytime curfew had been lifted Thursday on the city which has been re-occupied since June.

Another Israeli undercover unit entered a building where four Palestinian policemen were guarding the entrance to Ramallah's main hospital to abduct them, Palestinian witnesses said.

An Israeli army spokesman said one of them, allegedly member of a Palestinian resistance group, was killed in the operation.

In the northern West Bank, Hamza Abu Roub , a leader of the Islamic Jihad group was killed in his Qabatiya home which was then demolished by Israeli tank shells, Palestinian security sources said.

In a statement received by AFP in Beirut, Jihad branded the killing as "a criminal assassination at the hands of the Zionist enemy forces".

The group vowed that "this ugly crime will not go unpunished."

Meanwhile, an Israeli undercover unit also shot dead a member of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades near the city of Tulkarem, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli occupation forces also killed an unarmed Palestinian teenager in the nearby city of Nablus, they confirmed.

According to Palestinian medical sources, a total of 28 Palestinians were injured in sporadic Israeli shooting in and around Nablus, three of them critically.

Overnight, clashes broke out in Nablus' city center which the Israeli army said left two Palestinian fighters dead.

But Palestinian medical sources were unable to confirm the deaths as ambulances were denied access to the Casbah, asserting that Israeli occupation troops opened fire on them, injuring a driver.

The head of the Palestinian intelligence in Nablus, Talal Dwikat, accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of adopting escalating aggressions on the unarmed Palestinian people to win votes in the January 28 legislative elections.

"With the elections coming up and despite four weeks of calm, Sharon wants to revert the situation to a cycle of violence, and operations by undercover units are aimed at provoking a reaction from Palestinian groups," he told AFP.

Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, two Palestinians from Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were killed by the Israeli occupation army in what Israeli military sources described as a botched attack against the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

The Palestinian resistance group only confirmed one death but said a second of its men was missing.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP that Israel was "reverting to its policy of assassinations and house demolitions for electoral reasons and with the goal of sabotaging the efforts being exerted to ease the situation."

The Israeli army also re-imposed a curfew on Bethlehem, a few days after agreeing to ease the grip on Jesus' birthplace to allow Christmas celebrations.

Also, two members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, including a senior leader of the group who was on Israel's most wanted list, were abducted in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, Palestinian security sources said.

According to Israeli military sources, 120 suspected Palestinian fighters were abducted in Nablus alone in the past five weeks.

On Sunday, December 22, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that 1,000 Palestinians had been abducted since the beginning of November.

On Thursday, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that the Israeli army had already started building "special security zones" around Jewish settlements in the West Bank to prevent Palestinian infiltrations.

The daily quoted an anonymous military official as saying these buffer zones were several hundred meters wide, defined by fences, guarded by patrols and watchtowers, and inside of which new rules of engagement would apply, allowing Israeli soldiers to open fire on any infiltrator.