Furious Palestinians called for swift revenge attacks as they paid their last respects Sunday to seven militants, including three senior commanders, shot dead by Israeli troops in Nablus.
Around 30,000 people packed the streets of Nablus chanting demands for revenge in the heart of Israel after the killings on Saturday that were strongly condemned by Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, hailed the army's so-called Operation Full Court Press as an "impressive success in the fight against terrorism".
All schools and shops were closed in Nablus as the bodies of the seven began their journey from the city's hospital to the Martyrs' Cemetery at around 10:30 am (0730 GMT), an AFP correspondent reported.
Scores of masked gunmen from all the main Palestinian armed factions fired volleys into the air amid a sea of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades flags.
Among those who were being laid to rest was Nayef Abu Sharekh, the senior commander in the West Bank of Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a radical offshoot of the mainstream Fatah movement.
Fadi al-Bahti, a local leader of Islamic Jihad, and Jaffer al-Masri, a commander of the armed wing of Hamas, were also being buried.
"Our revenge will be tonight," the crowds chanted in unison.
Many of the mourners went to the site of a hideout in Nablus's Old City where the seven were killed in a shootout with Israeli troops on Saturday.
Israeli forces withdrew from Nablus and a curfew was lifted at dawn on Sunday although the funerals were brought forward slightly for fear that the soldiers could soon return.
Qorei condemned the killings of the "freedom fighters" as a "savage" act.
"This savage and ugly crime, which targeted a number of Palestinian freedom fighters after a four-day siege on Nablus, signifies that Israel is continuing its plan of killings and assassinations of all the freedom fighters," Qorei told reporters outside his offices in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"It's a clear message to the whole world that Israel can either remain above the law or can be deterred and stopped," the premier said.
Israel deputy defence minister Zeev Boim said the operation had dealt a major blow to the "terrorist infrastructure" in the northern West Bank.
"It (the operation) was directed in a pinpoint manner, according to intelligence information, against the people and infrastructure of terror in Nablus, which has been the manufacturing centre of terrorism in the recent period," he told public radio.
Many of the mourners also condemned the prospect of security co-operation between the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan to help ensure stability after the planned withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank.
"Why is there security co-operation while we are under bullets?" they asked.
Sharon meanwhile is likely to have to bring the opposition Labour party into government in order to steer the Gaza pullout plan through parliament.
Labour leader Shimon Peres confirmed in an interview published Sunday that he had been invited to join a new broad-based government, but added that such a coalition could be several months away.
"I doubt it will be realistic before autumn," he told Britain's Sunday Times after a series of meetings with Sharon, who now heads a minority government after the recent departure of four ministers in protest at the uprooting of settlers.
Peres said he would join the government in return for changes in policy, including a commitment by Sharon to a fixed timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.