Israel will continue its policy of targetted assassinations and other offensive operations in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, a security source said today.

A meeting of senior military officials late yesterday decided to continue, or even intensify the strikes, the source said.

During the meeting, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said that the Palestinian Authority "still refuses to fight terrorism," and that measures it had taken against armed militants were just for show.

Israeli helicopters late yesterday killed four Palestinians, including two militants of the radical group Hamas, in the first such attack since the formal breakdown of a ceasefire two days ago.

The air assault broke a relative weekend lull and came despite efforts by the Palestinian Authority to take the initiative in reining in the hardliners, including shutting down tunnels used to supply them with arms.

The attack was the first since Hamas and the group Islamic Jihad formally called off the seven-week-old truce on Friday, a day after senior Hamas official Ismail Abu Shanab and two bodyguards were killed in an Israeli air strike.

The Israelis had already considered the truce dead after last Tuesday's suicide bombing that killed 21 passengers on a Jerusalem bus and drove a stake into efforts to implement a US-backed "roadmap" for peace. – Sapa-AFP.