Israeli occupation tanks, backed by helicopters and bulldozers, staged yet another raid into the Gaza Strip, while Israeli occupation troops continued their systematic sweep of the West Bank, rounding up dozens of suspected resistance men and their relatives.The Israeli occupation army rolled into the town of Deir al-Balah and the nearby refugee camp in the centre of the densely-populated Gaza Strip overnight, demolishing the house of a senior leader of the hardline Islamic group Hamas, an occupation army spokesman said.

The occupation army accuses him of orchestrating a string of anti-Israeli attacks, including last week's killing of a occupation soldier near the southern Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif.

The Israeli occupation troops met little resistance and there were no reports of any injuries in the sporadic exchanges of fire which took place during the incursion, an almost daily occurrence in the Gaza Strip which Israel sees as an Islamic hotbed.

Following a surge of deadly Palestinian attacks inside Israel over the past two weeks, the occupation army also continued to tighten its grip on the West Bank after reverting to the level of reoccupation which prevailed five months ago.

In systematic sweeps overnight, Israeli occupation troops arrested dozens of suspected resistance men and their relatives in the towns of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and Bethlehem, all of which are reoccupied.

Among them was an official from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah, captured in Ramallah over his suspected involvement in the January 17 bombing of a ballroom in northern Israel which left 7 people dead.

A senior Hamas official was also arrested in Bethlehem's Dheisheh refugee camp, the occupation army said.

Israel has recently opted for methodical and sometimes lengthy sweeps of West Bank resistance strongholds, apparently dropping its controversial policy of "targeted killings".

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is walking a thin line, wary of incurring US anger by stirring up tensions in the region as Washington piles pressure on Iraq, while trying to appear as the country's strongman ahead of crucial elections.

Sharon was looking to maintain the comfortable lead he has in the polls over Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will challenge him for the leadership of the right-wing Likud party on Thursday night.

Despite the meteoric rise of the Labour party's new dovish leader Amram Mitzna, the polls also suggest Netanyahu is the only man who can prevent Sharon from continuing as prime minister after the January 28 legislative elections.

While the raging electoral battle gives no breathing space to the Palestinians, it also appears to freeze any breakthrough on the diplomatic level.

An official from Sharon's office said Tuesday that Israel had demanded and obtained from Washington that no definitive version of the so-called roadmap for peace in the Middle East be adopted before the new Israeli government is sworn in.

"This decision should take the line of the future cabinet into account and will depend on the outcome of the vote," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The document, which calls for an unequivocal commitment by Israel to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, is to be discussed by the "quartet" of Middle East diplomatic players -- the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia -- in Washington on November 20.

Labour's Mitzna and Likud party have widely different views on the creation of a Palestinian state.

The Cairo-based daily Al-Ahram, considered a mouthpiece of the Egyptian government, suggested Tuesday that Israel and the Palestinians should resume negotiations while agreeing to a six-month truce.

The proposal follows reports by the Israeli media that recent talks between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo supposedly aimed at agreeing on an end to resistance attacks were actually a drive by the radical Islamic movement to forge closer ties with Egypt and sideline Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

Hamas denied the charge.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian boy sits in front of a house and a car which were destroyed as the Israeli army entered the Gaza Strip  town of Deir al-Balah November 26, 2002. Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships swept into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, battling Palestinian gunmen and troops arrested at least 25 suspected resistance man in West Bank raids. (Reinhard Krause/Reuter