Troops also closed the Islamic University and Polytechnic Institute in Hebron, calling them a "hotbed for terror attacks," and arrested two Hamas militants in the West Bank city. The closures prompted brief clashes when a curfew was imposed.

Wednesday's killings were the latest in a surge of violence before a general election in Israel on January 28 that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is widely expected to win despite a corruption scandal that has rocked his right-wing Likud party.

In East Jerusalem, the army demolished the family homes of the four Palestinian members of a Hamas cell that carried out a series of attacks, including the bombing of a cafeteria at Jerusalem's Hebrew University and a well-known cafe near the prime minister's residence, that killed a total of 35 people.

The four were sentenced last month to between 60 years and multiple life terms in prison.

Israel regularly destroys the homes of militants accused of attacks, but it was the first time it had used the policy against residents of East Jerusalem who have Israeli identity cards and can obtain Israeli citizenship if they desire.

Israel says the policy is meant to deter Palestinians from joining militants behind a suicide bombing campaign in a nearly 28-month-old uprising for independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

But bombings have not ceased and the demolition policy has been condemned as a human-rights abuse by world leaders.

President Yasser Arafat called the killings of the three Palestinians an acceleration of the conflict under way since the Palestinians rose up in September 2000 after talks on a final peace settlement envisaging a Palestinian state stalled.

"The battle has been going on for 28 months. There is continuous escalation against the Palestinian people," Arafat told reporters at his battered headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The U.S. government questioned the wisdom of Israel closing down the two universities. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher reiterated that Israel had a right to defend itself and live in security but that Palestinians had a right to live their lives in "as normal conditions as possible."

"We would have to question how the closure of universities contributes to any of those goals," Boucher said in Washington.

SURGE OF VIOLENCE

Israeli forces killed a 16-year-old Palestinian in the West Bank city of Tulkarm during clashes with youths throwing stones and explosive devices, Palestinians said. The army said its forces shot one person who threw homemade grenades at soldiers.

Palestinian residents said the army later killed another 16-year-old in Tulkarm when he violated a curfew. The army said he threw a firebomb at troops during a clash with stonethrowers.

In the northern West Bank village of Qabatiya, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man during an operation to arrest militants holed up in a house in the village.

Palestinian residents said the dead man had psychological problems and was killed when he came out of his house to watch soldiers trying to force two members of the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to surrender.

The two gave up after a brief gun battle. The army said its forces killed the man because they thought he had explosives strapped to his body and would attack them.

An army spokeswoman said the soldiers fired at the man after he ignored calls to stop and warning shots.

The discovery of a Hamas cell in East Jerusalem shocked Israelis unaware the militant group had recruited Palestinian residents of the Holy City.

One of the members of the group was a painter at the Hebrew University. He planted the bomb which blew up in the cafeteria, and the next day was hired to repaint the scorched building.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their future capital.

Wednesday's deaths brought the toll to at least 1,782 Palestinians and 694 Israelis killed in the uprising, which prompted Israel last year to reoccupy wide areas of the West Bank granted self-rule under interim peace deals in 1994-95.

Diplomatic efforts to stop the conflict have failed. In the latest attempt, international mediators at a conference in London urged Israel not to undermine Palestinian reforms and told the Palestinians they must do more to halt violence.

(China Daily January 16, 2003)