Israel attacks Fatah offices

Eight Palestinians were killed in Wednesday's clashes

Israeli helicopters have launched missile attacks on several Palestinian targets, including offices of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

An Israeli spokeswoman confirmed that army helicopters had attacked three Fatah buildings, including its headquarters in Hebron, as well as an ammunition base in Jericho and buildings in the mainly Arab town of Beit Jala, near Jerusalem.

Fatah called for an escalation in the campaign to expel Israeli soldiers

The missile attacks came just a few hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's security cabinet decided to continue its "policy of restraint" during a meeting to discuss possible military responses to the deaths of four Israelis earlier in the week.

Earlier, the Fatah movement called for an escalation of its campaign to expel Jewish armed settlers and Israeli soldiers from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Today marks the beginning of the process of expelling armed settlers and Israeli soldiers from occupied land

Marwan Barghouthi

Their calls came as eight Palestinian protesters were shot dead in clashes with Israeli soldiers, on the day - 15 November - regarded by Palestinians as their symbolic independence anniversary.

Meanwhile, Israel's peace camp paid its last respects to one of its leading lights, the late Leah Rabin, widow of the assassinated Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who was buried in Jerusalem.

Death toll

Before Wednesday's security meeting, Israeli cabinet minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said he was in no doubt that the situation on the ground had "significantly worsened" in recent days.

More than 200 funerals have taken place

Despite sticking to the "policy of restraint" the security cabinet did adopt unspecified operational measures.

It said the new measures would not exacerbate the situation.

The Palestinian death toll on Wednesday was one of the highest in a single day since the start of their uprising against the Israeli occupation and its perceived intransigence in peace negotiations.

The Palestinians were killed in clashes in the West Bank - near Hebron, Jericho, Qalqilya and Tulkarem - and at the Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Three Palestinians were reported to have been wounded in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, late on Wednesday night, as the Israeli army shelled a house in response to shots fired at the nearby Jewish settlement of Gilo.

The latest casualties bring the number of dead to more than 230 since the violence began in September, the vast majority of them Palestinians.

A senior Fatah official said on Wednesday that the Palestinians had launched a long-term struggle.

"Today marks the beginning of the process of expelling armed settlers and Israeli soldiers from occupied land in the West Bank and Gaza," said Marwan Barghouthi a Fatah leader in the West Bank.

Clinton's regrets

If [peace] doesn't happen, I'll be profoundly disappointed

Bill Clinton

US President Bill Clinton - who oversaw the signing of the 1993 Oslo peace deal between Mr Rabin and Mr Arafat - has said his biggest regret as he prepares to leave office may be his failure to reconcile the two sides.

"If it doesn't happen, I'll be profoundly disappointed", he told the Associated Press news agency, "but I'll never regret a minute I spent on it, because I think it's very important for the future."