Israeli tanks and armored vehicles backed by helicopter gunships rumbled into the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday and blew up the home of a senior Palestinian resistance activist. Meanwhile, Israel will for the first time call on witnesses in its trial of West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghuti, which is due to resume Thursday in Tel Aviv.

In Gaza, witnesses said tanks surrounded the one-story home of Talal Abu Zarifa in the village of Abasan and ordered people to leave before blowing it up, a standard punishment for Palestinians waging a two-year-old uprising for independence.

They said Abu Zarifa, a member of the radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was on Israel's list of wanted resistance activists but was not at home at the time.

Occupation troops also cut off electricity in Abasan and entered a local military hospital, and tanks and armored vehicles rolled into the nearby villages of Khuza and Boni Suhaila east of Khan Younis after entering Gaza from Israel.

Three people were hurt in Abasan, medical officials said. At least 1,674 Palestinians and 640 Israelis have been killed in the uprising that began in September 2000.

Also in Gaza, Iyad Zidan, a Palestinian resistance activist was killed last night near his home in Jabalya refugee camp.

At the same time, Israeli occupation soldiers killed two resistance men who had been trying to sneak into a Jewish settlement.

WITNESSES TO BE BROUGHT IN BY ISRAEL AS BARGHOUTI TRIAL RESUMES

Israel will for the first time call on witnesses in its trial of West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghuti, which is due to resume Thursday in Tel Aviv.

The defence team for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's lieutenant, whom Israel accuses of murder and of heading a "terrorist organisation", is expected to reiterate its argument that the Tel Aviv district court has no jurisdiction to try him.

Barghuti says his status as a member of the Palestinian parliament gives him immunity from prosecution.

Israel considers it has the right to try anyone who committed crimes against its citizens and holds Barghuti responsible for several resistance attacks carried out inside Israel by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a Fatah offshoot.

Following a turbulent hearing on October 3, the judge had adjourned the session without deciding on an Israeli plea to extend the 43-year-old Fatah firebrand's custody.

Thursday's session is due to rule on the request, while the prosecution is expected to present evidence against Barghuti by bringing witnesses to the court.

Meanwhile in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the "Campaign to Free Marwan Barghuti" will hold a demonstration in support of the emprisoned deputy, who was captured by the occupation army in April.

ISRAELI OCCUPATION ARMY USING HUMAN SHIELDS IN CONTEMPT OF COURT

At the same time, seven Israeli and Palestinian rights groups filed suits against the Israeli army and government for contempt of court, accusing the army of using Palestinians as human shields despite a Supreme Court injunction against the controversial practice.

The groups said the motion was based on a November 14 report by the leading Israeli rights organisation B'Tselem listing five separate incidents of the army using human shields since the Supreme Court froze the practice in an August ruling.

The B'Tselem report quoted witnesses describing how the army used a Palestinian civilian as a human shield on November 9 in Jenin, during an operation aimed at eliminating local Islamic Jihad chief Iyad Sawalha, whom Israel accused of being responsible for 31 Israeli deaths.

The report says Khaled Kamil, whose house was near Sawalha's, was questioned about his neighbour by soldiers and ordered to go to the Islamic Jihad leader's house.

The troops threatened to destroy Kamil's house if he refused and, after blowing up a wall which revealed a gaping hole leading into the wanted man's house, the soldiers forced Kamil -- at gunpoint -- to go inside and call Sawalha.

The suspected militant was killed in the operation, while Kamil was held in prison and only released the next day.

PHOTO CAPTION

Two Palestinian teenagers write the name of Iyad Zidan, a Palestinian resistance activist who was killed last night near his home in Jabalya refugee camp, in Gaza Strip, November 20, 2002. Israeli occupation soldiers killed two resistance men who had been trying to sneak into a Jewish settlement. REUTERS/Oleg Popov - Nov 20 3:53