Israel has dealt its heaviest blow to a key militant group within Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, killing its most senior West Bank commander. Israeli troops shot dead Nayef Abu Sharkh and five other Palestinian gunmen on Saturday during an ambush on their hideout in a house in Nablus, a militant stronghold. It was the deadliest raid into the West Bank for months. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, whose militants have carried out dozens of suicide bombings and attacks against Israelis, vowed revenge and said in a statement its retaliation would be “unprecedented” and “like an earthquake.” The militant group, one of the driving forces behind a Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000, operates largely from the West Bank where Arafat lives. Full Story