HEBRON, West Bank (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Undercover Israeli assassins shot dead a member of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction on Wednesday fueling tension already stoked by Israeli occupation troop movements.Imad Abu Sneineh was shot in the head, chest, stomach and legs by 10 bullets fired from a truck with Palestinian number plates outside his home in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron, Al-Khalil, Palestinian officials said.
Israeli occupation sources said the assassination was carried out by what it calls undercover soldiers and described Abu Sneineh as a prominent Resistance man who had been behind attacks on Jewish settlers.
Israel has so far assassinated about 60 people since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began last September.
Tensions remained high in the West Bank after reports that Israeli tanks and armored vehicles had taken up positions on Tuesday night close to the town of Bethlehem and the nearby village of Beit Jala, just south of Jerusalem.
Reuters television crews found few signs of a military build-up Wednesday and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said he had called off a raid on Beit Jala after receiving intelligence reports that Arafat was calling for calm.
But the threat of intervention still hung over Beit Jala, a Palestinian-ruled village from where Resistance men have been shooting across a valley at the nearby internationally illegal Jewish settlement of Gilo.
Ben-Eliezer reiterated threats by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to crack down on Beit Jala if the shooting continues.
FUNERAL IN HEBRON
Shops and offices in Hebron shut down following Abu Sneineh's killing. The 27-year-old Palestinian was to be buried later Wednesday.
Hebron is particularly tense because a small contingent of Jewish settlers lives close next to the Palestinians there.
The reports of Israeli tank movements near Bethlehem followed an incursion by Israeli tanks into the West Bank town of Jenin Tuesday. The tanks and bulldozers demolished a police building in response to Palestinian bombings
Shortly after the incursion, Resistance men in Beit Jala shot at Gilo and Israeli forces responded with a barrage of heavy fire.Sharon later told U.S. envoy David Satterfield at a meeting that he would send troops to Beit Jala if the shooting continued, an Israeli political source said.
Israelis are particularly sensitive to shooting at Gilo because many regard it as a neighborhood of Jerusalem, although it was built on West Bank land after Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war, which makes it an illegal settlement under international law.
Israel Says It Arrests Islamic Jihad Bomb Plotters

Israeli intelligence meanwhile arrested several Islamic Jihad members who, it says, were planning a bomb attack in the northern city of Haifa.
A police spokesman later said the Palestinian detainees admitted during questioning they had hidden ``a very large'' bomb in a field near Haifa, which they intended to detonate in a crowded area in the Israeli port city adding that a police bomb squad defused the device.
Details on the number of people arrested and the exact nature of the bomb were suppressed under a court gag order.
Palestinian officials confirmed that several Islamic Jihad members who resided in the West Bank town of Jenin were arrested by Israeli occupation forces for planning a bomb attack.
Israeli officials have described Jenin as a hotbed for Palestinian bombers, especially from the Islamic Jihad group.

ARAFAT SAID TO BE SEEKING CALM
Hasan Abed Rabbo, a Fatah official in Beit Jala, said Arafat had issued orders forbidding Resistance men to fire from there or from other areas under full Palestinian control.
The Palestinian president has been urged by world leaders to do more to end the intifadha and rein in Resistance men.
Israel faced international condemnation over Tuesday's three-hour raid on Jenin.
Palestinian diplomats are seeking a meeting of the United Nations Security Council Friday to discuss the Israeli raids and an international protection force.
Arafat was to hold an emergency meeting with top Arab diplomats Wednesday in Cairo to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the lack of international intervention is seen by Sharon as a green light to continue his military escalation.'
PHOTO CAPTION:
Assassinated Fatah faction member Imad Abu Sneineh is kissed by his father Soluman Abu Sneineh after he was gunned down by Israeli assassins in the predominantly West Bank city of Hebron, Al-Khalil, August 15, 2001. Israeli occupation sources said the assassination was carried out by what they call undercover occupation soldiers and described Abu Sneineh as a prominent Resistance man who had been behind attacks on Jewish settlers. (Loay Abu Haykel/Reuters)