The Israeli army has taken control of seven out of the eight key West Bank cities, including Hebron, imposing curfews in retaliation for two suicide bombings and an attack on a Jewish settlement that killed 31 Israelis last week.
Israeli tanks laid siege to a Palestinian Authority building in Hebron, as the army hunted Palestinian militants and entered more West Bank villages.
Witnesses said the army was trying to smoke out gunmen holed up inside the building that houses Palestinian Authority offices.
Israeli public radio confirmed that the building was being shelled but gave no details.
Elsewhere, Israeli troops shot dead a six-year-old Palestinian boy as they opened fire on stone-throwers in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
Israeli troops also arrested about 30 Palestinians in separate sweeps on the West Bank, including security officers and suspects accused by Israel of belonging to groups behind suicide attacks.
Twenty men were detained in the northern West Bank town of Tubas, where a Palestinian police station was also bulldozed by the army, Palestinian security sources said.
Meanwhile on the Gaza Strip soldiers found a tunnel used to "smuggle weapons" from Egypt to the Palestinian territories in the town of Rafah which straddles the border, military sources said.
AFP