NABIL SALEH, West Bank Undeterred by U.S. appeals for calm, Israel launched a predawn raid on a Palestinian village in the West Bank yesterday, killing at least six people and arresting about a dozen, including some it described as suspects in last week"s assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

Palestinians said at least nine people were killed and dozens wounded in the raid, which they called a "criminal massacre." It wasn"t possible to verify the extent of casualties because the Israeli army threw up roadblocks around the village, preventing journalists, ambulances and medics from entering all day.

The incursion occurred hours after President Bush urged Israel to withdraw "as quickly as possible" from Palestinian areas it has seized since the killing of right-wing Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on Oct. 17.

Coupled with fierce fighting elsewhere in Palestinian areas, the raid on Beit Rama threatened to further strain already tense relations between Israel and its main ally, the United States. The Bush administration is concerned that continued Mideast violence, and especially Palestinian bloodshed, will erode Arab and Islamic support for the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism.

Israeli officers said they alerted Palestinian security forces in Beit Rama in advance, warning them to stay indoors. Israeli soldiers began massing in olive groves near the village Tuesday evening, where they were spotted by at least one resident from a nearby village who was fetching water.

The assault began between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. yesterday. Israeli tanks, armored vehicles, paratroopers, special forces, security agents and helicopter gunships descended on Beit Rima, a village of 4,000 inside Palestinian-controlled territory 20 miles north of Jerusalem. They swept into homes, interrogated dozens of residents and engaged in several brief but fierce firefights with Palestinian gunmen. There were no Israeli casualties.

Yesterday evening, the army said it continued to search houses in Beit Rima for suspected militants and terrorists. About a dozen people were arrested, the army said, scores more were interrogated and residents were confined to their homes in a strict round-the-clock curfew. "I can"t even raise my voice," said Abdel Salaam Rimawi, a Beit Rima resident contacted yesterday afternoon by telephone. "The house is surrounded by soldiers ... If I look out the window I see soldiers on all sides."

Aides to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the raid on Beit Rima was carried out after Israel warned Yasser Arafat"s Palestinian Authority repeatedly to arrest militants or face tough Israeli military action.

"We didn"t go to aggravate or upset the United States," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon. "We went because there was no other way to stop terrorist activity."

Gissin dismissed U.S. requests for Israel"s pullout from Palestinian areas, including Secretary of State Colin Powell"s statement yesterday that it should "immediately" withdraw. "We will leave without the U.S. asking us to do it the minute Arafat complies with our demands that he stop terror," he said. "But to give a prize to Arafat and meanwhile have our capital fired on that really doesn"t make any sense."

Elsewhere in the Palestinian territories yesterday, heavy fighting continued for the sixth day in Bethlehem near Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus. Near Hebron, south of Bethlehem, six Palestinian workers riding in a vehicle were shot by gunmen who the Israeli police said were probably Jewish militants.

Street combat continued yesterday in Bethlehem, especially in and around the Aza and Ayda refugee camps that flank the north entrances to the city. For the second consecutive day, the Paradise Hotel, near Aza, was in flames, although the circumstances were unclear. Israeli troops have been trying to maintain sniper positions in the hotel.

In Ayda, on a hill next to the adjacent town of Beit Jala, tank shells blasted a house, and it exploded in flames. Red Cross officials said a family and neighbors were trapped and were calling for evacuation.

Israeli tanks and armored cars have been ringing both refugee camps for days, but entering them has been impossible due to the narrow paths and roads within. On Wednesday, Israeli bulldozers began to knock down shops at the entrance to Aza to ease entry.

The fighting at Aza was so heavy that ambulances couldn"t reach the scene. Wounded were brought out by private cars braving bullets. "This is dangerous work by the people in Aza, but there is no way for ambulances to operate with so much fighting going on," said Mohammed Issa, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which operates ambulance crews in the city.