GAZA/RAMALLAH, April 22 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army has escalated its military actions against the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since Saturday, killing at least nine Palestinians.

    Palestinian observers considered the Israeli military actions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip "a sudden escalation that Israel wants to make future political achievements or escape from commitments to resume the stalled peace process."

    On Sunday afternoon, a 16-year-old boy was killed near the village of Aabood west of the West Bank city of Ramallah on a second day of Israeli military escalation that left also eight others dead.

    Medics at Ramallah Hospital said that Kareem Zahran was killed as a result of being shot in the chest during clashes between the Israeli army and students who threw stones at the soldiers.

    Earlier in the morning, the Israeli army killed two militants belonging to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party in Nablus city.

    On Saturday evening, a bystander was killed in an Israeli air raid at a car carrying militants in northern Gaza Strip. Five others were shot dead in operations in northern West Bank, including a 17-year-old girl.

    The sudden surge of violence threatens a half-year fragile ceasefire that took effect in Gaza. Israeli sources said more than 150 home-made rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since the ceasefire began last November.

    Following the escalation of Israeli operations, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which leads the Palestinian unity government, urged Sunday the militant groups to prepare for a new round of violence against the Jewish state.

    In a statement sent to reporters, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoom called on the militant factions "to unite and use all means of resistance to respond to the massacres committed by the Israeli occupation."

    Hamas also called on Abbas to stop any future meetings with Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who is set to meet Abbas biweekly.

    Moreover, a militant leader of Fatah's armed wing in Nablus said, "We don't relay on Abbas-Olmert meetings because they are often followed by assassinations."

    But Jamal Nazzal, the official spokesman of Fatah, appealed for the militants to restrain themselves "in order to block the new Israeli policy that aims at programming the Palestinian reactions according to the times Israel selects."

    He considered the Israeli escalation as an attempt to show the world that the power-sharing deal between the Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah have achieved nothing new "and so the international siege remains in effect."

    Mustafa al-Barghouti, spokesman for the Palestinian government, said the Israeli operations "was a planned military response to the Palestinian initiatives that seek to cover the West Bank with the ceasefire."

    "The Israeli government is crippled and tries to hide its failure by resorting to military means," said al-Barghouti. Political analyst Hani al-Masri said the Israeli government "wants to keep up the aggression and the policy of creating facts on the ground in order to make the Israeli conception of the solution the reasonable point of view."

    The Palestinians should be watchful and withdraw pretexts from Israel through diplomacy while working to face the Israeli aggression, al-Masri added.