The Islamic militant group Hamas called Sunday for new attacks on Israel after nine Palestinians were killed by Israel Defense Forces troops in a surge of fighting over the weekend.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Sunday that Palestinians must brace for a new round of confrontation.

"The blood of our people is not cheap," Barhoum said in a statement.

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"Therefore we are calling on ... (Hamas' armed wing) and the Palestinian resistance groups to be united in the trench of resistance and to use all possible means of resistance and to respond to the massacres."

On Sunday, IDF troops shot dead a Palestinian teen who had hurled a firebomb at a military vehicle northwest of Ramallah in the West Bank, the army said.

Palestinian sources, however, said the 17-year-old had been throwing rocks, not firebombs.

Earlier Sunday, IDF troops killed two Palestinian militants, including a top bombmaker, during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian officials said.

Eight Palestinians were killed during a 24-hour surge in violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including two militants killed early Sunday during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus. The fighting also included a Palestinian rocket attack on the Negev town of Sderot that damaged one home but caused no injuries.

The violence has threatened a cease-fire declared last November between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. Palestinian officials have also said it jeopardized their efforts to expand the truce to the West Bank.

The Palestinian unity government, which includes Hamas, has called for an expanded truce.

Hamas officials in the government have tried to separate themselves from pronouncements by the group's military wing. Israel considers Hamas in all its forms to be a terrorist group.

Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, declined to comment on the Hamas statement issued Sunday, saying he had not yet read it. But he said the government "condemns the ugly massacres and crimes that reflect Israel's policy of military aggression."

He said the fighting proved that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is misleading the public when he talks about his willingness to have a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians.

Two Palestinians killed on Sunday
The two deaths Palestinian deaths Sunday brought to eight the total of fatalities during weekend IDF operations in the territories.

An IDF soldier was lightly wounded in Nablus on Sunday morning, Israel Radio said.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, said the men were killed after IDF troops surrounded a building where they were hiding and ordered people out. Most occupants came out, but the two militants remained holed up inside. An exchange of fire broke out, and the two men were killed, the group said.

The group named the two dead as Amin Lubadi, 20, a bomb maker who had been wanted by Israel for more than three years, and Fazel Nur, 21, both active in the militant group.

According to Israeli security sources, however, Fazel Nur belonged to Islamic Jihad. The sources said Nur was involved in planning terror attacks and recruiting suicide bombers.

The sources attributed a number of attempted bombings and abductions to Lubadi, none of which were successful - although in a number of cases the potential suicide bombers were arrested on their way to carry out the attacks.

Palestinian medical officials confirmed the deaths of two men.

On Saturday, six Palestinians, including a 17-year-old girl, were killed by IDF and Border Police troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said.

The sources said IDF troops surrounded the house in the West Bank city of Jenin in which the 17-year-old, named as Bushra al-Wahish, was located, and ordered all its inhabitants to leave.

The troops were reportedly searching for the girl's brother, a wanted Islamic Jihad militant. It is unclear why she remained in the house.

Three militants were killed in the city Saturday afternoon, and a policeman was killed earlier in the day in a nearby village.

On Saturday night, a 37-year-old Palestinian man was killed and another wounded when an Israel Air Force aircraft fired a missile at a vehicle in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Islamic Jihad militant group described the man as a civilian but said he was riding in a car with two other militants, who were seriously wounded.

The strike came after militants in the Gaza Strip fired three Qassam rockets into southern Israel on Saturday evening. One rocket landed next to a residence in the town Negev of Sderot, destroying an external wall and lightly wounding two people, and two rockets landed in open areas near the town. Four people were treated for shock.

The army confirmed it had attacked the rocket launching cell that fired the rockets at Sderot. Palestinian security officials said the dead man was a civilian.