What can this Palestinian boy do?!

JENIN, West Bank, May 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A day after 13 Palestinians were killed in a major raid on Gaza City, the Israeli army launched a brief incursion in the Palestinian territories Friday, May 2, as Washington issued a rare call on its ally to stem the civilian deaths.

Israeli troops backed by tanks moved into the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem and the adjacent refugee camp, Palestinian security sources said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The army also dynamited the houses of two Palestinian resistance activists killed earlier this week in a foiled attack on a wildcat settlement near the city of Nablus, sources on both sides.

Israel's policy of deterrent house demolitions has seen more than 200 homes destroyed since last summer, drawing condemnation from rights groups as being collective punishment.

In pre-dawn sweeps across the territories, the army also abducted 22 Palestinians, 10 in the West Bank and 12 in the Gaza Strip, the army said.

The Israeli army withdrew in the morning and lifted the curfew on all the West Bank cities it has reoccupied for almost a year.

The smoldering violence came a day after a massive Israeli raid into the Gaza Strip aimed at a senior leader of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas killed him and 12 other Palestinians, including a two-year-old toddler and two teenagers.

The raid lasted 15 hours. A pitched battle around a four-storey building where the man was holed up left a Gaza City neighborhood in ruins and also left seven Israeli soldiers wounded.

Most of the victims were civilians, including a two-year-old child.

The raid, which came a day after the so-called "roadmap for peace in the Middle East" was published, prompted Israel's U.S. ally to urge restraint.

"We deeply regret the civilian casualties that occurred today in Gaza and we urge the Israeli government to take all appropriate precautions to prevent the death or injury of innocent civilians and damage to civilian and humanitarian infrastructures," said a State Department spokeswoman.

Washington had promised to release the blueprint after the new Palestinian government was sworn in. Its publication Wednesday, April 30, was seen as a potential breakthrough in attempts to bring the deadly cycle of violence to an end.

The plan calls for a cessation of violence on both sides. As part of a first phase, it demands the Israeli army withdraw to pre-Intifada lines and for the new Palestinian administration to rein in militant groups.

But both sides want the other to take the first step, and the implementation of the much-awaited roadmap already faces major obstacles.

Following the raid on Gaza and Wednesday's bombing in Tel Aviv for which Hamas claimed joint responsibility, the group's armed wing issued a stark challenge Friday to the new government of Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas.

"This is a clear message to everybody - our weapons are our blood. We will cut any hand that tries to take these weapons away from us," the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades said, responding to Abbas' call to disarm.

"To our eyes, anybody who cooperates with the roadmap is collaborating with Israel's criminal occupation," the group also warned.

The recent bloody developments came as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was set to arrive in the region to promote the roadmap.

Powell was expected in Syria Friday, as part of the first of two trips to the Middle East this month. He was due arrive in Israel on May 8 for a two-day visit there and to the Palestinian territories.