Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas yesterday condemned the ongoing Israel Defense Forces offensive against Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying the latest violence jeopardizes peace prospects. IDF troops killed three Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank even as Palestinian officials said they have begun enforcing a ban on public displays of weapons.

The offensive began last week after Hamas militants fired a barrage of homemade rockets on the western Negev town of Sderot.

"This escalation is putting the entire peace process in real jeopardy," Abbas said. "We call on Israel to stop these acts, especially since all our factions have committed themselves to the cease-fire and to ban all military parades and public displays of weapons."

Later yesterday Palestinians fired two mortar shells at an IDF outpost on the Gaza Strip border. There were no casualties and no report of damage.

The shelling came after IDF troops killed three wanted Palestinian militants, including the head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, during two predawn arrest raids in the northern West Bank. The slain head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Jenin was Samar Sa'adi, 30.

Palestinian residents said that IDF soldiers took up positions in several neighborhoods in the West Bank town of Jenin, and started raiding houses amid intensive gunfire and explosions of stun grenades.

Soldiers in the village of Burkin shot and killed two armed men - the targets of the arrest raid - who appeared about to fire on the force, the army said. Soldiers later found assault rifles and ammunition clips on their bodies, the military said.

Palestinians identified the men as Islamic Jihad militants Nidal Khlouf, 32, and Samar Shalaby, 24.

Following the killings, the leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the northern West Bank, Zaqariya Zbeidi, said his group was no longer committed to the fragile temporary cease-fire, or to tahadiya, the agreement militant groups reached with the Palestinian Authority in February.

During the raids in Jenin, Bethlehem, Nablus and Ramallah, troops arrested 12 wanted Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants. Yesterday marked the sixth day of Israel's military operation in the West Bank, as soldiers searched for Hamas and Jihad militants.

Also yesterday, police arrested a knife-carrying Palestinian woman, 21, who was detained near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City. She apparently intended to stab security forces personnel and was remanded into custody.