Israel's security cabinet met in special session today to discuss additional retaliatory measures against the Palestinian Authority in response to the escalating wave of terror attacks. Five Israelis were killed early Tuesday morning in three separate attacks in Tel Aviv, Afula and south of Jerusalem. The cabinet reportedly decided to maintain a policy of intense military pressure on the PA, but did not call for a redeployment of Israeli tanks just outside PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Ramallah office, Israel Radio reported.

This afternoon Israeli helicopters fired missiles at PA police facilities in Ramallah and Nablus. Earlier, helicopters fired at least four missiles at the headquarters of the Palestinian National Security Forces in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said. Today's strikes followed similar helicopter attacks last night, when missiles slammed into the government complex in Ramallah, landing some 10 meters away from Arafat's office. Arafat was in the building at the time but was uninjured in the attack, Palestinian sources said.

Israeli forces were also active in the Hebron area Tuesday morning. One Palestinian was killed and five wounded during a military operation in the village of Dura, and five additional Palestinians, including a 13-year-old girl, were wounded when Israeli forces entered Palestinian-controlled sections of Hebron.

Security forces today captured four members of a terrorist cell suspected of planning to launch a terror attack in the Sharon region. Three of the terrorists were apprehended near Taibe. The men were described by police as "ticking time bombs" and were in possession of explosives and other weaponry. Police had been on high alert during the morning with "hot warnings" of terrorist intentions to launch attacks at Israeli targets.

Sharon uses harsh words to describe war
Speaking in the Knesset and to reporters on Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon used his strongest words yet to describe Israel's war with the Palestinians. Israel is in a war against a "cruel, bloodthirsty enemy," Sharon said, and in the current situation, "it's them, or us." Palestinians "have to be hit hard, and it has to hurt them," he said. Israel "must cause them losses, victims, so that they will feel it."

Sharon was explaining Sunday's security cabinet decision calling for "continuous military pressure" on the Palestinian Authority. Sharon said that last week's raids against terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin and Balata refugee camps would serve as a formula for additional operations. He warned that there would be no place where terrorists would be permitted to operate "without fear."

Sharon was due to present the security cabinet with a 17-point plan of action, Yediot Aharonot reported. According to the paper, the plan called for the redeployment of tanks outside Arafat's Ramallah office and the targeting of terror organization leaders, among other suggested military operations.

Nearly 20 Palestinians killed by IDF gunfire on Monday
Nearly twenty Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli military operations on Monday. During the day Israeli jets bombed the government building in Bethlehem, Israeli forces re-entered the Jenin refugee camp to search for wanted terrorists and weapons and operated against arms-smuggling tunnels in Rafiah. Palestinian sources said that Israeli Navy gunboats fired missiles at Arafat's offices in Gaza City.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and the IDF issued formal apologies for the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians on Monday. A tank shell fired from Psagot towards Ramallah hit the car of Bushra Abu Kweik, wife of a local Hamas leader, instantly killing her, her three children and two other youths. The army said it had targeted a vehicle transporting armed Palestinian policemen, but Palestinians claimed that the shelling was a botched assassination attempt. "I swear to God the Israelis will pay a high price for the crime," Abu Kweik said afterwards.

IDF forces opened fire Monday afternoon on an ambulance speeding towards them at a roadblock outside Jenin. According to media reports, an oxygen tank in the ambulance exploded, killing Jenin Red Crescent director Dr. Saliman Halil. In an official statement, the army said soldiers fired at the ambulance in self-defense when the vehicle sped towards them from an area where there had been exchanges of gunfire.

Earlier, during clashes in the Jenin refugee camp, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade leader Ajmad Fahury and four other Palestinians were killed and an IDF soldier was lightly injured. Palestinians reported three people killed during the army operations in Rafiah.

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