Israeli forces raided refugee camps, blew up a car carrying a Palestinian militant's family and opened fire on an ambulance, killing 17 people in total after vowing harsh reprisals for attacks on Israelis.
The attacks continued this evening as an Israeli air strike devastated a Palestinian security building in the West Bank town of Bethlehem late today.
The two missile strikes caused explosions that could be heard in central Jerusalem, six miles away, and destroyed the main Palestinian Authority building in Bethlehem.
Witnesses said Israeli F-16 warplanes fired the missiles and were circling the Palestinian-ruled city. There were no casualties.
The latest attacks followed Israel's pledge to "put the brakes on Palestinian terror" after a weekend of violence in which 22 Israelis were killed and international peace efforts were thrown deeper into doubt.
An Israeli tank shell hit a car carrying the family of a member of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing at least six people including his wife and three children, medical sources said.
The Israeli army said it had targeted a carload of armed Palestinians but expressed "deep regret" that it had hit a vehicle carrying civilians.
Hours earlier, troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships stormed into two refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and fought gunmen following Israel's announcement it would exert constant military pressure on the Palestinians.
The Israeli army shot dead at least three people in the Rafah camp in the Gaza Strip and killed seven in the Jenin camp in the West Bank, hospital sources said. Dozens were wounded.
The Israeli army also opened fire on a Palestinian ambulance near the scene of fighting in Jenin, killing a doctor and wounding three medics, Palestinian medical authorities said.
Israeli military sources said soldiers fired light weapons at the ambulance that sped toward an Israeli force in the camp and the vehicle exploded. The sources said two soldiers were wounded in the explosion.
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat called for international intervention to halt the Israeli assault.
"I urge the United States and the European Union to directly and immediately intervene to allow ambulances into Jenin camp and get the wounded out," Erekat told Reuters.
Israeli forces entered the camps after Israel vowed harsh reprisals for one of the bloodiest waves of Palestinian attacks since the start in September 2000 of an uprising against Israeli occupation.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the assaults, including a suicide bombing in Jerusalem and a sniper attack at a West Bank checkpoint.