Israeli army surrounds village

Israeli troops and tanks took positions near the West Bank village of Beit Jalla today in an invasion-style operation, after a heavy exchange of fire between gunmen in the village and soldiers protecting a nearby Jewish neighbourhood.

The movement came just a day after Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumbled into the West Bank town of Jenin and destroyed a police building - the first incursion into a Palestinian town since Israel relinquished civilian control over Palestinian population centres in 1995, under interim peace accords.