Israeli soldiers battled Palestinian gunmen and demolished the family home of a Hamas suicide bomber on Friday during a house-by-house sweep for militants in a West Bank city.

A Palestinian boys throws a petrol bomb on an Israeli tank during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin September 19, 2003. Israeli soldiers exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen and demolished the family home of a Hamas suicide bomber on Friday during a house-by-house sweep for militants in a major West Bank city. [Reuters]

Five Palestinian civilians were wounded -- including a girl of four and boy of 12 standing nearby -- on the second day of the Israeli incursion, witnesses said. There was no word on possible militant casualties. Four soldiers were also wounded.

A U.S.-backed peace plan envisaging a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territory has been derailed by a relapse into a tit-for-tat violence over the past month with Washington largely preoccupied by turmoil in Iraq and a budding election campaign.

In New York, the U.N. General Assembly demanded Israel drop a threat to expel or harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in a 133-4 vote with 15 abstentions sponsored by Arab and nonaligned states. The United States, Israel and two small Pacific states voted against it.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat attends Friday prayers at a mosque adjacent to his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah September 19, 2003. [Reuters]

The United States vetoed a similar resolution in the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. Washington has no veto in the General Assembly, but Assembly resolutions carry far less clout than those of a Security Council dominated by Western powers.

Israel, which sees the United Nations as intrinsically biased against it, stirred an international outcry last week when it announced a decision in principle to "remove" Arafat as an "obstacle to peace", without saying when or how it would act.

Arafat, 74, denies inciting violence and has vowed to use his personal weapons to resist any move against him.

Israeli officials criticised the vote. "Palestinians have once again chosen to divert their efforts to rhetoric such as in the General Assembly instead of focusing on the main issue -- fighting terrorism," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yoni Peled.

"It's a positive response, a slap in the face of Israel and whoever supports it," said Nabil Abu Rdeinah, a senior aide to Arafat. "It backs President Arafat and the Palestinian cause."

U.S. CONSIDERS DEDUCTING AID TO ISRAEL

A senior Israeli government source said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) would send a high-ranking delegation to Washington next week to try to defuse U.S. opposition to the routing of a security barrier Israel is building through the West Bank.

The United States has said it is considering how much of a $9 billion loan guarantee package it will deduct in response to Jewish settlement-building in the West Bank and that the barrier, which shields some settlements, could be an issue.

Israel says the barrier, a mix of fences and walls, is to keep suicide bombers out of its cities. Palestinians call it a "new Berlin Wall" expropriating farmland and in effect annexing terrain they seek for a state under the U.S.-backed peace plan.

Masked Palestinian youths stand behind a burning barricade prior to clashes with Israeli border police in Abu Dis in east Jerusalem September 19, 2003. Israel's defense minister said on Friday Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Qurie can prove himself a peace partner only by launching a crackdown on militant groups once he takes office. [Reuters]

The senior Israeli source said two options were on the table -- extending the barrier well into the West Bank to include settlements with 30,000 Jews, an option demanded by rightist ministers, or separate fences enclosing individual settlements.

U.S. officials want the barrier built as close as possible to the "Green Line" boundary between Israel and the West Bank, and not looped eastward to include Ariel, a major settlement 20 km (12 miles) inside the territory.

The U.S.-engineered "road map" peace plan requires Israel to freeze settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and Palestinians to halt militant attacks to pave the way for a Palestinian state by 2005.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told Israel Radio that Arafat's choice for prime minister, Ahmed Qurie, could prove himself a peace partner only by cracking down on militant groups once he takes office with his cabinet, expected next week.

President George W. Bush said on Thursday the "road map" had stalled and he blamed what he called Arafat's failed leadership.

Palestinians say the road map was undermined by Israel's continued raids to kill or capture militants even after they declared a ceasefire in June. They cancelled it a month ago.

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