Nota: oppure sono solo dei semplici guerrafondai?

Beit Jala, West Bank: A German doctor was killed overnight in Israeli army raids on the Palestinian village of Beit Jala, near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, said an AFP correspondent who saw the body today.

Harry Fisher, reported to be in his 50s, was the first foreign victim of the violence between Palestinians and Israelis that erupted across the Palestinian territories seven weeks ago.

The death toll now stands at 233, most of them Palestinians.

The doctor was married to a Palestinian woman and had lived for years in Beit Jala, local residents said.

The Israeli army said its combat helicopters had fired at buildings in Beit Jala in what it described as a reprisal for shots fired at the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the border between annexed east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Witnesses said Fisher was hit by a shell or a rocket as he was leaving his house to help his neighbours, whose house was ablaze after being hit in the bombardment.

They said his body was left in the middle of the road for at least two hours because the army prevented an ambulance from reaching the scene.

His funeral is due to take place later today.

Overnight, Israeli combat helicopters attacked four Palestinian targets in the West Bank in line with Prime Minister Ehud Barak's policy of a measured response to increasing Palestinian violence.

An army statement said helicopters struck at three bases of what it terms the Tanzim militia of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in the West Bank and a munitions dump at Jericho.

A spokesman said the army had not warned the Palestinian authorities of the strikes, contrary to the normal procedure, but said the four targets were in sectors that were uninhabited at night.

The four strikes were apparently ordered by a meeting of the security cabinet chaired by Barak last night, which was aimed at deciding on a riposte to the increasing number of attacks on Israelis.