By night, Israelis stalk Palestinians

HALHOUL, West Bank At 1 a.m. under a chilly spring rain, the streets of Halhoul lay silent and apparently deserted.

Hassan Abu Zalata recalled that he and a colleague in the Palestinian intelligence agency, Ahmed Zaerah Madhiah, left their car parked on a narrow lane alongside a mosque and walked a few meters to take a cell phone call. Their chief, Khalid Abu Khairan, remained behind in the car with another intelligence officer, watching and listening in the blackness.

The four were on late-night patrol in this West Bank city, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Jerusalem. They had heard reports that the Israeli troops who tightly surround Halhoul were about to enter the city. But the reports had been checked and, headquarters radioed back, seemed doubtful. The four intelligence agents nevertheless remained on alert from their vantage point near the little stone mosque.