At least five Palestinian members of Hamas were killed Sunday in a blast near Gaza City which the militant Islamic group blamed on Israel and vowed to avenge. Two other Palestinians were killed in the West Bank city of Nablus during clashes which erupted during an Israeli army raid to arrest a high-ranking official in the Palestine Liberation Organization , witnesses said. Witnesses said a car laden with explosives blew up inside a farm in the al-Zeitun neighborhood, known as a Hamas stronghold, just one day after a Hamas land mine gutted an Israeli tank and killed its four crewmen in north Gaza.

Hamas officials blamed the car explosion on Israel, saying they believed it was set off by remote control from a pilotless drone flying in the area. The army had no immediate comment.

The boot of the vehicle had been ripped apart and blood covered the ground near a group of farm sheds surrounded by cinderblock walls. Three other people were wounded in the blast.

"We will retaliate for their new crime, for their new terror action...It will be a very expensive price," Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi told reporters.

Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, has led a campaign of suicide bombings against Israelis in a 28-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz vowed "to strike hard at our enemy Hamas," in response to the tank blast.

In the past, such threats have been followed by Israeli air strikes on munitions factories, house demolitions and sweeping arrests of Palestinian militants.

Israel has also tracked down and killed scores of Palestinian militants it says are behind attacks on Israelis. Palestinian militants have also been killed while making bombs for use in such attacks.

Hamas said it carried out the attack on the U.S.-made M-60 tank near the Jewish settlement of Dugit in northern Gaza to avenge the killing of two of its members by Israeli troops during a Muslim holiday that ended Friday.

PLO ARREST

In Nablus, Israeli soldiers arrested Tayseer Khaled, representative for the radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the PLO Executive Committee, witnesses said.

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the troops as they entered the office building where Khaled worked, drawing Israeli gunfire which killed two Palestinians and wounded 18 others, witnesses and hospital officials said.

The army confirmed that its forces arrested a Palestinian official wanted by Israel and that a gunbattle had erupted during the raid.

Nablus was reoccupied by Israeli forces along with other West Bank cities in June after a wave of suicide bombings.

Earlier this month, Israel and the Palestinians renewed a dialogue aimed at dampening the violence. The talks were expected to resume later this week.

Israel has proposed a pullback from reoccupied West Bank cities in return for clear Palestinian steps against militants.
At least 1,835 Palestinians and 705 Israelis have been killed since violence erupted after U.S.-brokered negotiations on Palestinian statehood hit an impasse in the summer of 2000.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian man carries family belongings from the rubble of his house demolished by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) near the Dugit settlement, northern Gaza, February 16, 2003. At least five Palestinian members of Hamas were killed in a blast near Gaza City which the militant Islamic group blamed on Israel and vowed to avenge. (Radu Sigheti/Reuter