Ariel Sharon is to meet senior Israeli cabinet ministers tomorrow to consider withdrawing military forces from Palestinian-ruled areas in the West Bank.
This meeting comes as Israeli soldiers killed up to eleven Palestinians in the West Bank. Three Palestinians, including at least one policeman, were reported killed when a column of 15 Israeli tanks rolled into the Palestinian-controlled the village of Beit Reema near Ramallah.
Earlier, Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinians in Tulkarm, saying the men were about to open fire. In other violence, suspected Jewish settlers are reported to have wounded six Palestinian labourers in the West Bank town of Hebron.
Israeli forces entered six West Bank towns last week after demanding that the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat hand over militants who killed an Israeli Cabinet minister. Two men were arrested.
The raid by Israeli troops on Beit Reema is in defiance of a call by President Bush for Israel to withdraw from the six West Bank cities.
Israeli tanks and infantry entered the village under cover of darkness, arresting residents and taking up positions in the area southwest of Ramallah, the largest Palestinian commercial centre in the West Bank.
The incursion came hours after Mr Bush asked Israel to take its forces out of Palestinian-ruled areas.
