A Palestinian was killed as Israeli forces stepped up their policy of raids, arrests and house demolitions after security talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials about the so-called "Gaza First" plan failed to make headway. The 21-year-old Palestinian was fatally wounded as the Israeli army staged a new incursion into the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Four others were also wounded as around 25 tanks and armoured troop carriers moved into the town, with four accompanying bulldozers razing farmland in the area.

OCCUPATION FORCES DEMOLISH HOUSES OF 4 RESISTANCE BOMBERS

Occupation troops meanwhild destroyed the family homes of four Palestinian Resistance men who were involved in bombings and other anti-Israeli activity.

Three of the houses were in the Bethlehem area, while the fourth was in a town north of Nablus.

In Bethlehem, the occupation army razed the homes of Daud Abu Sweil and Akram Nabtiti, both of whom belonged to the Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad.

The occupation army confirmed the destruction, saying Sweil had carried out a bomb attack in Jerusalem on December 5, 2001 while Nabtiti had blown himself up in east Jerusalem on March 7.

A house razed in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, belonged to Ali Mussa Abu Alaan, the alleged West Bank leader of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas.

Another house, that of the suspected Hamas mastermind of last week's deadly bus bombing in northern Israel, was destroyed in Tubas, some 15 kilometers northeast of Nablus.

Mazen Fukha, also a member of the Hamas military wing, was arrested by Israel the day after the bombing, which left nine dead.

TALKS BREAK UP IN FAILURE

The renewed surge of military activity came just hours after overnight talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials on an Israeli security plan to tackle the 22-month conflict foundered.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, a close aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, placed the blame squarely on Israel, saying the Jewish state had imposed a set of new conditions on the security plan

ZYAD ABU ZYAD CALLS FOR STOPPING PALESTINIAN ATTACKS ON ISRAELIS.

A member of the Palestinian Authority, Zyad Abu Zyad, called Thursday for an end to Palestinian attacks in Israel in an interview on Israeli public radio.

"The attacks on civilians in Israel must stop immediately. We must keep this goal in sight so as to be able to resume negotiations," he said, speaking in Hebrew.

ROAD NEAR ISRAEL-JORDAN BORDER CLOSED AFTER INFILTRATION SCARE

The road from Israel's Arava desert, near the Jordanian border, to the town of Eilat was closed following reports of an armed commando unit trying to cross the border into Israel?

Israel's Public Radio meanwhile said, the Israeli occupation army were on standby in the region to deal with all eventualities.

Five suspected Resistance men were spotted approaching the Israeli border from the Jordanian side and one of the group was arrested by Jordanian soldiers.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army caught a man who had snuck into southern Israel from Egypt early in the morning.
Initially, the radio said the man had inflitrated from Jordan.

The occupation army hunted him all day in the Beer Ora sector, in the Arava desert, around 15 kilometres from the Red Sea resort of Eilat.

ANNAN TAPS FORMER HEAD OF WFO AS MIDEAST HUMANTARIAN ENVOY

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Catherine Bertini, the former head of the World Food Program, to be his personal humanitarian envoy to the Middle East.

Bertini is to travel to the conflict-torn region this weekend "to assess the nature and the scale of the humanitarian crisis and to review humanitarian needs in the light of recent developments," a statement from the secretary general said.

Annan said the impetus for Bertini's appointment and humanitarian mission stemmed from a decision agreed in July at a quartet meeting in New York that the UN "should lead a concerted international effort to alleviate the plight of the Palestinian people."

EXILED PALESTINIAN DENIES TROUBLE

A senior Palestinian Resistance leader expelled by Israel and granted temporary shelter in Cyprus denied Wednesday he was causing trouble .

, is considered the most dangerous of 13 Palestinians expelled May 10 and given temporary shelter in Cyprus under a deal to end a siege at one of Christianity's holiest sites, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

While the 12 Palestinians were resettled elsewhere in Europe after leaving Cyprus in late May, Abdullah Daoud, 41 , is waiting for an EU nation to take him in.

On Tuesday, Cyprus' Justice Minister Nikos Koshis said he wants Daoud to leave because he has refused to take police escorts or cooperate with police and was "associating with suspicious persons."

Daoud said he wasn't doing anything wrong.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian youths throw stones towards an Israeli army Jeep, not pictured, during minor clashes that took place at the center of the West Bank town of Ramallah Wednesday Aug. 7, 2002. Few Palestinian demonstrators were injured in the clashes as the Israeli army maintains control on the besieged town. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)