Israeli forces wound 14 Palestinians in W Bank raid

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan 4 (Reuters) Israeli forces raided the centre of the West Bank city of Ramallah today, wounding at least 14 Palestinians in an operation to seize a wanted militant, hospital officials and a senior militant said.

The incursion, with Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers slamming aside parked cars near Ramallah's main Manara Square, was the biggest such operation in the city since May, when four Palestinians were killed in a raid.

An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said Israeli forces were engaged in ''routine arrest activity'' when they came under Palestinian fire.

The operation was launched several hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were to meet in Egypt in a bid to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and possibly to discuss extending a Gaza ceasefire to the West Bank.

As smoke rose above central Ramallah, gunfire rang out along a busy shopping area, sending pedestrians scrambling for safety.

Gunmen took to rooftops and youngsters threw stones at Israeli military vehicles.

Palestinian security sources said an Israeli helicopter had poured machinegun fire into a building near the square.

Hospital officials said at least 14 Palestinians were wounded and some were in critical condition.

A senior leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group in President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, said the Israeli operation was aimed at capturing one of its top members.

The leader said the wanted man, whom he did not identify, appeared to have been either wounded or killed.

Israel frequently carries out raids in the occupied West Bank to detain suspected militants, but largely stays out of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government.

REUTERS PB RN2050