'Israel plotted several times to kill Arafat

Those discussions did not reach any practical planning stage and no preparations were made for an attempt on Arafat's life, the Haaretz newspaper reported Monday.

The remarks by Army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon marked the first time a senior Israeli official has openly talked of plans to assassinate Arafat.

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"Why did we not kill Arafat? The truth is that the discussion whether or not to kill Arafat was debated a number of times in the past," Yaalon told a chamber of commerce meeting in the southern city of Beersheba on Sunday.

Those discussions came up after two bloody periods punctuated by Palestinian suicide bombings, a year ago and again last September, Haaretz reported.

"The subject was debated in terms of costs and benefits," Yaalon said. "It is correct that occasionally we need to reevaluate if our cost and benefit assessments were correct or not."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has promised President Bush that Arafat would not be harmed.

Arafat has been confined by Israeli military forces to his partially destroyed compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah for the last 18 months. Israeli officials, most notably Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, have called for exiling the Palestinian leader, who Israel has accused of backing militants.

Israel routinely targets Palestinian militants in what the military terms "targeted killings," and has stepped up that policy in recent weeks. Two weeks ago Israel wounded a co-founder of the violent Hamas group, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, in a botched helicopter missile attack on his jeep.

In the continued cycle of violence 3,360 people have been killed since the start of the uprising nearly 33 months ago, including 2,532 Palestinians and 768 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

In the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, Israeli troops staged a brief incursion near the Tuffah checkpoint and blew up four Palestinian buildings, Palestinian security sources said.

Military sources said an Israeli soldier was wounded in an exchange of fire during the raid but did not elaborate.

The sources added that a home-made Qassam rocket was fired across the border from the northern Gaza Strip on the Israeli town of Sderot, causing no casualties.

Israeli, Palestinian and US security officials were still discussing a withdrawal from the area, which is often used as a launchpad for militants firing rockets on Israeli targets amd has been reoccupied by the army for months.