OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 6 September 2003 — In another blow to the Middle East road map, Israeli commandos yesterday killed a West Bank commander of Hamas. An Israeli soldier was also killed and four wounded in the operation in Nablus.

The Israeli operation ended when soldiers blew up a seven-story apartment building where Mohammad Al-Hanbali had been holed up. The destruction of the building made 28 families homeless.

The latest violence is likely to give ammunition to opponents of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to promote the road map and persuade President Yasser Arafat to hand over control of Palestinian security forces.

The raid was launched a day after Abbas, a proponent of the faltering road map, called on Palestinian legislators to back him or sack him. The outcome of the Abbas-Arafat face-off could determine the fate of the peace plan that has been nearly erased by a surge of violence since the collapse last month of a truce the Palestinian hard-liners declared in June.

Hanbali was the 12th Hamas activist killed by Israel since the country declared all-out war on the group last week and vowed to go after its activists.

Arafat’s top aide condemned the raid. “This an Israeli military escalation which we condemn and we have asked the international community and the Mideast Quartet to intervene immediately to stop Israel’s aggressions and send international observers,” Nabil Abu Rudeinah said.

“We hold the Israeli government responsible for this escalation,” he said, accusing the United States of having “stood back” and let the operation happen.

Rudeinah also criticized an Israeli Army incursion in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah earlier in the day. Israeli tanks, jeeps and bulldozers rolled into Rafah, near the Egyptian border, and destroyed a two-story house, part of a reception hall, greenhouses and razed several hectares of agricultural land.