Hamas threaten ceasefire as militants killed by Israelis

THE Palestinian terror group Hamas last night threatened to tear up asix- week-old ceasefire deal after two of its leaders' bombmakers were killed during an Israeli raid in the West Bank.

A 20-year-old Israeli soldier was also killed during the fierce battle in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus.

Hamas official Ismail Abu Shanab said the Israeli incursion violated the ceasefire. "The Israelis should bear responsibility for this attack and all of its consequences," he said.

The targets of the raid were two members of Hamas's military wing, Khamis Abu Salem, 22, and Fayez Sadder, 26.

As Israeli troops surrounded a three-storey apartment block in the camp before dawn, Palestinian gunmen in the building opened fire on them, said Colonel Arieh Knafo, who led the raid.

As the soldiers took cover and returned fire, an explosion brought down most of the building. The Israeli military said a bomb-making lab had blown up, and they later destroyed the rest of the flats.

One of the Hamas targets was killed by gunfire, while the other was buried under the rubble, the Israeli military said. Colonel Knafo denied reports an anti-tank missile had been fired at the building.

Witnesses said a third Palestinian was killed when the Israeli troops opened fire on stone throwers during the raid.

Hamas's military wing vowed to avenge the deaths of its members.

"The crimes of the Zionist enemy committed against our people will not pass without the enemy paying a proper price," it said in a statement.

"We call on our resistance cells to respond to these crimes and to teach the enemy a deterrent lesson."

The battle came after a month of relative calm since the main militant groups signed their ceasefire on June 29. Though the truce has dramatically reduced the level of violence, the Israeli military continues to try to arrest Palestinian terror suspects.

Also yesterday, an Israeli government source said Israel might alter the route of a series of fences, trenches, razor wire and a wall being built between Israel and the West Bank.

Israel says it is meant to keep suicide bombers and other attackers out of Israel. The Palestinians are angry because parts of it plunge deep into the West Bank to include some Jewish settlements on the "Israeli" side.

A first 90-mile stretch has been finished in the northern West Bank and two fences 12 miles in total have sealed off Jerusalem's northern and southern edges from the West Bank. The US threatened it might to reduce aid to Israel if construction continues on sections of the barrier built beyond Israel's line with the West Bank.

"We have concerns about that fence," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "We have expressed our concerns to the Israelis, and the Israelis are considering the problems that we have identified to them," he said.