RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 31 -- A leading member of Palestine Liberation Organization's Fatah mainstream chaired by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was shot to death by an Israeli army undercover unit on Sunday, Palestinian radio reports said and, in a separate incident, a militantly anti-Arab settler and his wife were slain.
Thabet was an employee of one of the Palestinian Authority ministries and chief of Fatah security in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. He was gunned down in front of his house and died later in hospital, the reports said.
Arafat's advisor Nabil Abu Rudeineh accused Israel of carrying out a series of assassinations against Palestinians since the beginning of the confrontations between Israel and the Palestinians three months ago.
"These aggressive assassinations could lead to a catastrophic reactions and serious results and could destroy all the Arab and international efforts to revive and save the stalled peace process," Abu Rudeineh told reporters.
The killing of Thabet is the first ever of a high-ranking official member of a Palestinian movement, where Israel said that he was leading a militant Fatah group that carried out a series of attacks against Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.
Earlier, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying Jewish settlers in the West Bank on Sunday, killing a husband and wife, and injuring their five children, Israeli radio reported.
The attack took place near the Jewish settlement of Ofra, north of the town of Ramallah, army radio reported, where the dead man was identified as Benjamin Kahane, son of the late anti-Arab militant Meir Kahane, who was assassinated in New York in 1990.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called it "a grave attack", but said it would not bring Israel to its knees.
The radio said the attackers sprayed the settlers' minibus with sub-machinegun fire, causing it to run out of control and plunge into a dried up riverbed.
One of the children was reported to be in serious condition with head injuries.
The shooting comes a day after the main Palestinian group, Fatah, called for two weeks of intensified protests to mark the 36th anniversary of the founding of the group.
The incident happened three days after a bomb attack on a Tel Aviv bus injured 14 Israelis and two soldiers died trying to defuse a bomb in the Gaza Strip.
Radio reports said the Israeli security services had detained 15 Palestinians suspected of involvement in attacks against Israeli targets.
The scale of confrontations between Israel and the Palestinians has grown recently as Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators fail to bridge the gaps and reach a permanent agreement that would end both sides' conflict.
Palestinian radio reported that five Palestinian workers were injured at the Erez Crossing point while going to their work at the Erez industrial zone.
The radio said Israeli tanks shot at Palestinian houses in Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, and the Deheishe refugee camp and Askar refugee camp in the West Bank damaging dozens of houses and wounding at least 18 people.
