AL-KHALIL, West Bank, September 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation forces killed a member of the Islamic resistance group Hamas in the southern West Bank town of Al-Khalil (Hebron) as the Israeli army shot and injured 2 Palestinians during a major incursion into the area of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said Friday, September 27.

In Al-Khalil, Israeli forces shot and killed Mahmoud Jamal Yagmur, 21, as they chased the Palestinian activist from his home in a bid to abduct him, witnesses said.

Meanwhile in Gaza, Israeli forces shot and wounded two Palestinians late Thursday, September 26, during a major incursion by the Israeli occupation army into the area of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Palestinian security and medical sources as saying.

The two Palestinian men were hit by shrapnel from Israeli tanks shells.

About 30 Israeli tanks and armored cars and two bulldozers stormed Deir el-Balah during the night and destroyed the house of an Islamic Jihad activist, a Palestinian security told AFP.

Earlier Thursday night, Israeli tanks staged an incursion into the Palestinian autonomous town of Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, AFP added.

Four tanks opened fire as they advanced about 100 meters (yards) into Beit Hanun accompanied by a military bulldozer.

Several tanks also circled Beit Lahia, also in northern Gaza, as occupation soldiers carried out house-to-house searches, the sources said.

Late Thursday, a young ultra-Orthodox Jew attacked a Palestinian woman in a street of central Jerusalem, using a syringe to jab her with insulin, Israeli public radio reported.

It said the incident occurred in a street next to the ultra-Orthodox district of Mea Shearim, close to occupied east Jerusalem.

The young woman who fainted was given medical attention, while police in the area arrested the assailant, who apart from the needle was also carrying a large knife and a plastic gun, AFP said.

Meanwhile, on the eighth day of his siege, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat showed no sign of backing down, as one of his advisers predicted far-right Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would give up on his demand for the handing over of some 20 of his Palestinian Authority and security forces holed up with their President in the Ramallah Headquarters.

"The Israelis will have to withdraw in a couple of days from the Muqataa and finish the siege," Bassam Abu Sharif told AFP.

"Sharon knows he cannot blow up the building because that will be a catastrophe for Israel," and its image abroad, he said, suggesting Washington would eventually pressure the occupation army into lifting the siege on the Palestinian President.

Israeli tanks stormed the compound September 19, and the siege has prompted a flow of condemnations from the international community and even a rare rebuke from the United States.

Sickness among the 73-year-old President’s 250-strong Authority and security forces was reported Thursday, as living conditions continued to deteriorate in Arafat's crumbling office, the only building still standing in the devastated Ramallah Headquarters.

Meanwhile, Israeli police were on high alert for the main weekly Friday Muslim prayers as worshippers flocked to occupied east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque - Islam’s third holiest site - where the Palestinian Intifada erupted two years ago, in response to a provocative visit by then General Ariel Sharon who stormed the Mosque with a big number of his guards.

Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said thousands of extra policemen had been deployed in the country's main cities, while checkpoints along the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank had been beefed up.

Only male Palestinians over 40 are allowed access to the Al-Aqsa mosque, he said.