GAZA CITY (AFP) - Seven Palestinians were killed in a series of violent incidents across the occupied territories as Israel warned Syria to stop harbouring "terrorists" after the slaying of a Hamas leader in Damascus.
In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian militant was killed in an Israeli air strike, while a man working as a translator for the US television channel CNN was snatched by a group of armed men.
Israel stopped short of claiming responsibility for Sunday's car bomb attack in Damascus, which killed 40-year-old Ezzedine Sheikh Khalil, a founder member of Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
But it issued a sharp warning to the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad and stepped up security at Israeli embassies and consulates worldwide for fear of reprisals, with Hamas warning it would wreak bloody revenge.
"Syria cannot possibly enjoy immunity when it shelters the headquarters of (Palestinian) terrorist organisations," deputy defence minister Zeev Boim said.
"All those involved in anti-Israeli attacks must know that their lives are at risk."
Both Syria and Hamas blamed Israel for the assassination, with an official in Damascus quoted by the state SANA news agency accusing the Jewish state of carrying out a "terrorist operation (which) constitutes a dangerous development."
In violence on the ground, seven Palestinians, five of them militants, were killed.
In the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian militant was killed and three other people wounded in an Israeli helicopter strike on a car near Khan Yunis, Palestinian security sources and medics said.
The slain man was named as Ali al-Shaer from the hardline Popular Resistance Committees, a group partly composed of former members of Palestinian Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah party.
Also in the car was Mohammed Abu Nasira, a senior militant in the movement, who was seriously injured, along with two passers-by.
Earlier, troops shot dead two other members of the Popular Resistance Committees in northern Gaza who were trying to plant a bomb near the border fence with Israel, sources on both side said.
The group named the two as Hassan Daher, 19, and Mohammed Askar, 21, from the Jabalia refugee camp just north of Gaza City. Israeli military sources said troops had shot two Palestinians seen crawling with explosives towards the fence.
Meanwhile, Riyadh Ali, an Arab Israeli working as a translator for the US television channel CNN was kidnapped in Gaza City by a group of armed men, witnesses told AFP.
His abductors blocked a car carrying Ali and several Western CNN staff in the Al-Rimal district in the centre of the city, the witnesses said.
A wave of unprecedented kidnappings and clashes between Palestinians erupted in the Gaza Strip in July, causing a major security crisis.
In Khan Yunis refugee camp, 60-year-old Said al-Madhun was shot dead by Israeli fire while standing in the playground of a UN-run school near a Jewish settlement, Palestinian medics and security sources said.
The army had no immediate comment on the incident.
Meanwhile, in the northern West Bank, two stone-throwing Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops in Nablus' Balata refugee camp, Palestinian sources said.
Ahmed Tirawi, 18 and Ammar Daasan, 25, were both said to be militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- a hardline group affiliated to Fatah -- but unarmed at the time of the shooting.
Just east of Nablus, a Jewish settler killed a Palestinian man. The settler, who was arrested by Israeli police, said he had shot in self-defence after 41-year-old Sayyel Jibara tried to run his car off the road.
A Palestinian witness told AFP the settler had got out of his vehicle and shot Jibara at point blank range.
The upsurge in violence brought the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising almost exactly four years ago to 4,344, including 3,325 Palestinians and 948 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
More than 70 Israeli military vehicles raided the northern city of Jenin in a hunt for militants, the army said, sparking clashes with gunmen and stone-throwing youths.
Medics said nine Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire.
The troops also stormed Al-Razi hospital, the office of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and a local branch of the education ministry, Palestinian sources said.
Hospital director Fawwaz Hamad said troops had destroyed the operating theatre and damaged much equipment beyond repair.
Palestinian sources said a hospital janitor and security guard were arrested while two Hamas militants were seized in the town's refugee camp.
Troops maintained a cordon round Jenin's public hospital well into Monday afternoon and the entrance to the town was sealed by tanks as troops carried out out house-to-house searches in the camp.