BETHLEHEM, West Bank — It was a display of Palestinian unity rarely seen since the militant Islamic group Hamas seized power in Gaza last summer and left the rival pro-Fatah Palestinian Authority struggling to hold on to the West Bank.

As thousands of men and women crowded into Manger Square on Thursday to attend prayers and the funerals for four local militants killed by Israeli undercover forces in a raid the day before, a general strike was observed throughout this Muslim-Christian city of 30,000 people.

In the square, youths held flags representing the mainstream Fatah, Hamas, the smaller, more extreme Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The body of one of the victims, a local Islamic Jihad leader, Muhammad Shehada, was draped with the increasingly popular emblem of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

More than creating a temporary fusion of political and ideological divisions, though, the killings enraged Fatah advocates of negotiations with Israel, who posed questions about its commitment to peacemaking.

“The crime committed by Israel against our people aims to blow up the peace process,” said Muhammad Khalil al-Laham, a Fatah legislator who came to the square, and whose voice rose in fury as row upon row of Muslim mourners bowed down on the paving stones in silent prayer.

“Bethlehem was the calmest and most committed city,” Mr. Laham said, noting that Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, had planned an international investors’ conference to be held in the city in May under the slogan, “You can do business in Palestine.”

Israel strongly defended the killings on Thursday as a legitimate response to terrorist acts. “Yesterday, in Bethlehem, we again proved that the state of Israel will continue to hunt and to strike any murderer who has Jewish blood on his hands, and those who send him,” said the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak. “It is unimportant how much time has elapsed. Israel’s long arm will reach him.”

The Israeli raid came at a delicate time for the authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. Egyptian mediators are trying to broker a truce that would calm the hostilities between Israel and Hamas in and around Gaza, a truce that Mr. Abbas called for after violence spiraled there earlier this month.

Mr. Abbas’s office issued an unusually strong statement after the Bethlehem raid. “These barbaric crimes reveal the true face of Israel, which speaks loudly about peace and security all the while committing murders and executions against our people,” it said.

In a response, Islamic Jihad fired more than 20 rockets from Gaza at Israel on Thursday, after refraining from launching any for nearly a week. Only a small number of them fell inside Israel and they caused no casualties, the Israeli military said. Before dawn the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike in Gaza, also the first in nearly a week, hitting a rocket launcher, the military said.

To Israel, the four men were dangerous fugitives with long records in terrorism; two had been on Israel’s most wanted list for years. For the thousands who attended their funerals they were local heroes of the Palestinian resistance who had managed to survive this long. Mr. Shehada ran in the Palestinian elections as an independent candidate in 2006 and won 7,000 votes. One of the companions he was killed with, Issa Marzuk, 36, was voted onto the Bethlehem city council on an Islamic Jihad ticket in 2005.

The four, including Ahmed Balboul, a local commander of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, were shot while riding together in a car. Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, is a militia affiliated with Fatah.

Palestinians say that all four had been hoping to be included in an amnesty agreement with Israel, but that Israel had refused. The 178 militants Israel did offer amnesty to last summer, under certain conditions, were all from Fatah.

Mr. Balboul, 48, had spoken in recent months about his support for a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Shehada, 45, had used “the language of resistance up to the last minute,” said Ata Manaa, a journalist for a local Bethlehem television station who interviewed the fugitive earlier this week.

But many here believe that Mr. Shehada and his companions had not been engaged in violence against Israelis in recent years. “Though they opposed the Palestinian Authority’s position,” said Hassan Abed Rabbo, a spokesman for Fatah, “there was a clear commitment to the authority’s decision to maintain calm.”

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said it was true that the West Bank had been relatively quiet, “but that,” he added, “is largely because the Israeli Army is conducting these ongoing operations.” The Authority’s own security forces are in a process of capacity building, said Mr. Regev, “but we have no doubt they could do much more than they have done. They’ve been extremely reticent to take on the terrorist infrastructure,” he said.

There were no gunmen visible in Manger Square on Thursday, and only a couple of traffic policemen in uniform. Other members of the security services joined the mourners in civilian clothes. There was one burst of gunfire in the air as the funeral procession set off for the cemetery; otherwise, order prevailed.

“The Palestinian Authority doesn’t control an inch of the West Bank,” said Shawqi Issa, the director of the Ensan Center for Human Rights in Bethlehem. “Israel is everywhere.” Nor, he said, does Israel want peace. “Their strategy is to put obstacles in the way every day.”

Mr. Issa was a classmate of Mr. Shehada’s 30 years ago. The two happened to meet in an elevator about 40 minutes before Mr. Shehada was killed. Mr. Shehada, who was with Mr. Balboul, knew he was being pursued. “He said, ‘They don’t want to arrest me, they want to kill me,’ ” Mr. Issa recalled.

Israeli Attacks Condemned

DAKAR, Senegal (Agence France-Presse) — The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, sharply condemned the Israeli attacks in a speech here on Thursday at the start of a meeting of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference.

“Israel’s disproportionate and excessive use of force has killed and injured many civilians, including children. I condemn these actions and call on Israel to cease such attacks,” Mr. Ban told an audience that included the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. “At the same time,” he added, “I also condemn the rocket attacks directed against Israel and call for the immediate cessation of such acts.”

Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, and Taghreed El-Khodary from Gaza. Khaled Abu Aker contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Graham Bowley from New York.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company