The wife of Saadi poses with their children for a photograph at home in Jenin

RAMALLAH, West Bank, October 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli occupation forces killed Wednesday, October 1, two Palestinians in a fresh incursion into the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem and detained a leading Islamic Jihad member in Jenin.

Mazen al-Badawi, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, was gunned down by the Israeli army in the Tulkarem camp as he was trying to escape capture, Palestinian security sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Rabah Abu Dakka, a 24-year-old an officer in the Palestinian national security services died of head and chest injuries sustained during the same raid, in which three other Palestinians were moderately wounded.

The latest deaths brought to 3,499 the number of people killed during the three-year-old Intifada against Israeli occupation, including 2,614 Palestinians and 822 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

Three Palestinians were wounded during the sweep.

Israeli military sources claimed “Palestinian gunmen opened fire at army forces carrying out an detention operation and the forces returned fire," but could not confirm if there were Palestinian casualties.

But Tulkarem governor Ezzedin Assharif and Palestinian security sources said there had been no exchange of fire, and that al-Badawi was gunned down in the street as he was trying to flee the scene.

They said Abu Dakka, who was hit in the chest and head by several bullets, happened to be out on the street at the time of the Israeli raid.

Assharif said an Israeli special unit had pushed into the town and laid siege to dozens of houses, shooting as they went in what appeared to be an intensive search for “wanted” Palestinians.

The deaths came as Israeli cabinet approved the next phase of the controversial separation which divides the West Bank, although

Abducted

Meanwhile, supported by attack helicopters, Israeli soldiers swooped down on a refugee camp in Jenin early Wednesday and abducted the West Bank political leader of Islamic Jihad.

Bassam Saadi, 42, was captured by Israeli soldiers traveling in some 20 jeeps and backed up by Apache helicopters.

They opened fire randomly as they entered the area and met no resistance, according to AFP.

Saadi was found hiding under a car outside a mosque, by Israeli soldiers with sniffer dogs, the BBC News Online quoted eyewitnesses as saying.

He became the effective leader of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, after the detention or assassination of other senior members of the resistance group last year.

Another 14 Palestinians were captured by Israeli forces overnight, after raids near Nablus, Ramallah and Al-Khalil.

Palestinian security sources also said that some 15 Israeli tanks and a similar number of jeeps had entered the West Bank town of Qalqilya at around 7:00 am.

The Israeli army then imposed a curfew and conducted house-to-house searches.

They added that two Palestinians had been wounded and some 15 houses bulldozed flat during an Israeli army raid in the southern Rafah region of the Gaza Strip, close to the border with Egypt.

An Israeli military source claimed that they had destroyed "several empty structures used for terrorist activity", including cover for firing on Israeli positions and smuggling arms from Egypt.

Seeking Ceasefire

Separately, Palestinian prime minister-designate Ahmed Qorei said he will present his new cabinet for parliamentary approval on Sunday or Monday.

"The cabinet will be presented to parliament Sunday or Monday as well as its mandate for the coming period," he told reporters after meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters.

Qorei aid his cabinet's mandate would be to carry out "a program of reforms, achieve quiet and realize the aspirations of the Palestinian people."

He has stressed over the past three weeks, since he accepted the post, that he would seek to secure a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire.

An earlier ceasefire unilaterally declared by the main Palestinian resistance groups ended in failure after Israeli occupation forces assassinated prominent Hamas political leader Ismail Abu Shanab.