RAMALLAH, West Bank, 21 December — Israeli tanks and armored vehicles rumbled back into two Palestinian-ruled cities after withdrawing briefly yesterday, sparking a fresh gunbattle in the West Bank.

The latest violence erupted on the same day President Yasser Arafat’s police clashed in the Gaza Strip with Hamas supporters protesting attempts by the police to seize one of their leaders.

In the West Bank city of Nablus a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces.

Up to 12 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles also rolled back into the Al-Tiri neighborhood in Palestinian-ruled Ramallah, from where they had retreated earlier, security officials said.

The latest clashes and Israeli Army movements occurred as Arab and non-aligned nations prepared to call for an emergency session of the UN General Assembly in New York to stress the Palestinian Authority’s importance in the Middle East peace process and to condemn Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas.

Palestinians slammed the United States for its "blind" support of Israeli actions against them in a memorandum to an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers yesterday.

In Gaza, a civilian was killed and 28 Palestinian police and civilians were wounded last night in clashes between police and supporters of the Hamas, a hospital source said.

The clashes came less than 24 hours after a first shooting incident, in which seven people were injured after Palestinian police unsuccessfully tried to storm the house of Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Al-Rantissi and arrest him.

Dozens of Hamas supporters threw stones at the police near the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood where Rantissi lives, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

The police fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse their attackers, who continued to throw stones, as well as Molotov cocktails. The partial pull-outs earlier had followed resumed security talks between Israel and the Palestinians on Wednesday, and had raised hopes of progress after Arafat arrested some activists and closed their offices under international pressure.

Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo expressed yesterday their "support" for the policies of Arafat, who Sunday ordered a halt to armed operations against Israel.

Ministers and other representatives of the 22 states of the Arab League in a final communique expressed their "support for the position of the Palestinian Authority, that is looking to achieve a political solution based on the creation of an independent Palestinian state, sovereign and with its capital Jerusalem."

Arab countries including Egypt and Jordan have expressed their full support for the appeal made by Arafat to cease attacks and armed operations against Israel, but others, including Syria, have criticized his decision.

The meeting was called after Israel launched numerous assaults against Palestinian Authority targets and confined Arafat to virtual house arrest in the West Bank town of Ramallah in reaction to attacks launched by Palestinian groups.

In a draft of the meeting’s final communique, submitted to ministers during informal meetings in the afternoon and debated behind closed doors in the evening, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa proposed a boycott of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"The Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs calls for the complete cessation of political contacts with the Israeli prime minister," Moussa’s draft said.

"Israel’s boycott, or its ignoring Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, means the Arab countries should take the same decision concerning Sharon," said the draft.

"If (Ariel) Sharon does not see President Arafat as a partner in the peace process, the Arab countries do not see in Sharon a partner worthy of trust, and do not see any use in pursuing contacts with him," the text continues. Moussa also proposed that the meeting decide that "the people of the Arab countries stop dealing economically with Israel in any form and boycott Israeli products in any market, especially the products of the (Israeli) settlements, so long as the Israeli policies of aggression, of assassination, of state terrorism continue."

In the village of Karut Ben Yazid, northwest of Ramallah, Israeli troops arrested six Palestinians. One of them, Abed El Hadi Salah Harar, is a member of the Hamas, the army said.

Palestinian officials said the raid was unopposed and without incident. In Hebron, to the south of Jerusalem, Israeli forces netted Zad Nasser Adin, a member of Islamic Jihad.