Israeli tanks return to Jenin

Israeli tanks and troops swept through Palestinian-controlled Jenin refugee camp early today, in what the army said was a search for militants.

They left again several hours later.

There were no reports of casualties during the incursion, which Palestinian witnesses said also included parts of Jenin city.

"It is a pinpoint operation in the refugee camp. Arrests have been made. When we are done, we will get out," a military spokeswoman said.

The witnesses said that in the refugee camp, the scene of the fiercest fighting during Israel's recent West Bank offensive, soldiers surrounded the house of a militant of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas and ordered him outside.

The militant, Jamal Abu al-Haija, did not appear, but his wife and children left the house. Soldiers then threw hand grenades inside and the house caught fire, the witnesses said.

Israeli troops reoccupied Palestinian-ruled towns in the West Bank last month in an offensive that the government said was aimed at rooting out militants blamed for a wave of suicide bombings in the Palestinian uprising launched 19 months ago.

The army has pulled out of the towns but continues to encircle them and stage ad hoc raids in what it calls an effort to seize leftover suspects and pre-empt further suicide attacks.

Palestinians have claimed that Israel carried out massacres in Jenin refugee camp during last month's operation.

Human rights groups have reported they found no evidence of this but said Israeli troops may have committed "war crimes" in the camp.