Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian militant leader during a West Bank raid, and wounded two besieged Palestinians at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

A local head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Raed Nazal) was slain in a gunfight when Israeli forces raided the Palestinian town of Qalqilyah. Israeli officials say the man was on their wanted list for his alleged organizing of anti-Israeli attacks.

Israeli troops detained at least 20 other Palestinians during the pre-dawn raids in Qalqilyah and several villages between the towns of Nablus and Jenin. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said the army will carry out such sweeps whenever it gets intelligence information about suspected terrorists. 

In the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Israeli forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of activists protesting the Israeli blockade of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

In Bethlehem, two Palestinians holed up the Church of the Nativity were wounded by Israeli sniper fire and evacuated for medical treatment. They were shot as four other Palestinian men, two of them in police uniform, left the besieged church and surrendered to Israeli forces.

At least 200 people, including armed Palestinians, have been under Israeli siege in the church for more than three weeks.

Nine Palestinian youths left the church Thursday, bringing with them the corpses of two slain men under an agreement between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators. Israeli authorities today (Friday) allowed eight of the youths to return to their families, but they are keeping one teenager for further questioning on suspicion of anti-Israeli activity.

One of youths who left the church says the Israelis questioned him closely about the identity of the Palestinian militants still holed up there. He says there are still about 20 teenaged boys among the besieged. He says the situation is terrible in the church, with no electricity or food. He says Israeli snipers have wounded several people trying to collect herbs in the church garden.

(Reuters, AFP, AP)

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