HIGHLIGHTS: Israeli Cabinet to Pursue Reoccupation Policy||King Abdallah of Jordan Criticizes Washington's Mideast Policy But Says Arafat Has Lost Control over Extremists Groups||Syria Denies Israel Terror Charge|| STORY: Middle East violence churned on in a surge in bloodshed -four Palestinians were reported killed on Friday as the occupation army widened operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, sending dozens of tanks into Nablus, as part of a new military campaign against Palestinians dubbed "Determined Path."

In the West Bank Friday, Palestinians said a 14-year-old boy was killed when the occupation army blew up a building in Jenin.

Jewish settlers drove in a convoy into a Palestinian-ruled town near Nablus and opened fire, killing one man.

Ohsam Johari, director of the government hospital in Nablus, said Adnan Odeh, 22, was shot in the chest.

Villagers said Odeh was standing at the entrance to his house when the settlers began shooting randomly. They said the settlers burned three cars and one house.

Three other Palestinian fatalities were reported in the Gaza Strip, where occupation troops shot and killed an assailant who threw grenades at them at the Erez junction, which is at the entrance to the strip. Two Palestinian workers were also killed in that shooting.

The Associated Press reported that occupation troops opened fire at a group of Palestinian children and an AP reporter and photographer on a Gaza road as occupation soldiers tore down a Palestinian police post. No one was hurt.

In Nablus, witnesses said about 50 tanks and a number of armored bulldozers entered the outskirts of the city from four directions. Israeli tanks fired sporadic bursts of machine-gun fire, but there was no apparent resistance. Soldiers used loudspeakers to declare a curfew, witnesses said.

A 10-year old boy was killed in the Sheik Ajalun neighborhood north of Gaza, Palestinians sources say, when a tank fired at a gathering in the neighborhood, which borders with Netzarim, another internationally illegal Israeli settlement.

ISRAELI CABINET DECIDES TO WIDEN ITS REOCCUPATION POLICY

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon planned convened his so-called security cabinet later Friday. The cabinet approved broadening the operation launched in response to back-to-back bus bombings in Jerusalem on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the gun attacks against the internationally illegal settlement of Itamar Thursday night. In all, 33 Israelis died in Resistance attacks this week.

JORDAN'S KING ABDALLAH SAYS ARAFAT LOST CONTROL OF PALESTINIAN EXTREMISTS

In an interview with a Belgian weekly-published Friday, King Abdullah of Jordan said Yasser Arafat has lost his control over the extremist Palestinian organizations, and that he expects an escalation of violence in the Middle East in the near future.

For years, he said, he had held the view that Arafat was able to contain Palestinian sentiments, including within the extremist groups, but that that was not the situation today, according to Israel's radio carrying the report.

Criticizing the US administration in the interview, Abdullah said it does not fully comprehend the graveness of the situation in the region. "The American are sure that a visit by (Secretary of State) Collin Powell to the region is enough to clam the situation," he reportedly said.

Abdullah called on the United States to strengthen its involvement in efforts to curb the escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

He reportedly said he had made unequivocally clear to President Bush that if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues, the political situation of the entire region will deteriorate.

SYRIA DENIES ISRAEL TERROR CHARGE

In New York, Syria's foreign minister said Friday his country has helped save American lives from terrorist attacks since Sept. 11 and strongly denies Israel's charge that it is part of an international axis that supports Palestinian terrorist acts.

Syria is on the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terrorism, and while Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa was presiding over the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte accused Damascus of supporting terrorist groups and demanded that it condemn Palestinian bombings, diplomats said.

At a news conference Friday, al-Sharaa was asked about a Knight Ridder report quoting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as saying his government provided intelligence to the United States three months ago about an al-Qaida operation that would have killed many American soldiers.

"I am not going to confirm anything related to security, but I confirm the substance of what is written in the press about that - that we have helped in rescuing American lives," al-Sharaa said, speaking in English.

PHOTO CAPTION

Medical staff examine the body of Adnan Odeh, 22, at a hospital in the West Bank town of Nablus Friday June 21, 2002.(TL); A Palestinian man flees Israeli gunfire with a child June 21, 2002 after
Israeli tanks entered Jenin. (TR); Unidentified relatives carry the covered body of Wael Ajour at Shefa hospital in Gaza City, Friday June 21, 2002. Ajour was one of two workers were shot by Israeli soldiers when a Palestinian attacker threw a grenade at Israeli soldiers at the industrial park near Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza early Friday. Israeli soldiers, who fired back, killing the attacker and two Palestinian workers. (BL); Israeli army bulldozers tear down Palestinian farms near the crossing of the Jewish Netzarim settlement in southern Gaza, Friday June 21, 2002. (BR).  Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh); ; (AP Photo / Adel Hana); (Reuters Tv/Reuters); (AP Photo/Adel Hana), Respectively.