Israel tightens grip on Nablus

Men aged 15-50 are being rounded up

The Israeli army has stormed into the West Bank city of Nablus, declaring it a closed military zone and rounding up Palestinian men.

Two Palestinians were killed as soldiers, backed by more than 100 tanks, poured into the city in retaliation for Wednesday's bomb attack at a Jerusalem university.

	Population: 150,000 (32,000 refugees) Israel says: "Nablus is focus of activity of terror group" Israeli incursions: 3 April (19 days), May (several short incursions), 21 June (40 days approx), 1 August

The BBC's Jeremy Cooke, who is in Nablus, saw men between the ages of 15 and 50 being blindfolded and bound by Israeli troops before being taken away in a waiting bus.

He says the whole city is under Israeli control and the Casbah, or Old City, appears to be the focus of current operations.

Soldiers are reported to be carrying out house-to-house searches in the narrow alleyways of the old quarter, smashing through connecting walls to avoid exposing themselves to Palestinian fighters in the streets.

Israel has said the operation is aimed at rooting out militants from the Hamas network.

The group claimed responsibility for the campus bombing which killed seven people, five of them US nationals.

On Friday, a senior political figure in Hamas, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, said his organisation was not deliberately targeting Americans.

Bomb factories

The army said that two explosives laboratories had been uncovered in the early hours of its operation, Reuters reported.

Israel's internal security service is reported to believe that the bomb used at the Hebrew University was prepared in a workshop in the Old City.

Local residents described scenes of chaos as the army moved in the early hours.

"Dozens of tanks, APCs and bulldozers joined other troops and were shooting in all directions," May Fataier told the Associated Press.

The Old City in Nablus was the focus of operations

"I heard someone screaming and went out of the house and a soldier opened fire at me and I was injured," she said.

Israeli forces also went into the neighbouring village of Salem and shot dead a member of Hamas.

In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian was reportedly killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops at Rafah near the border with Egypt.

An elderly Palestinian woman was also killed on Friday by Israeli fire near the Kissufim crossing in the southern Gaza Strip. The army said it was looking into the incident.

Expulsions and demolitions

As part of the continuing crackdown on militants, Israel's attorney general has approved the expulsion from the West Bank to Gaza of two relatives of Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israeli civilians.

Israel says the men facing expulsion - Gaza Kifah Adjuri, 28, from Askar refugee camp, and Abdel Nasser Assidi, 34, from the village of Tel - knew about the planned attacks but did nothing to prevent them.

Lawyers for the men told Reuters news agency they would appeal against the order to a military court sitting later on Friday. They can also appeal to Israel's Supreme Court.

Israel says the policy of expulsions is meant to deter would-be suicide bombers from carrying out attacks if they know their families might suffer.

Last month, Israel arrested 19 relatives of suicide bombers and threatened to expel them, but the attorney general blocked the move.

Israel is also implementing its new policy of destroying homes belonging to the families of suicide bombers.

In Hebron, troops blew up a house belonging to the family of a Palestinian who killed two Israelis in an attack in Jerusalem last November, the army said.

In Tulkarm, soldiers destroyed the house of a member of Hamas who killed three Israelis in an attack in the coastal city of Netanya in March 2001.