Israeli troops on Tuesday poured into a village near Nablus and reimposed a curfew as they continued the hunt for the killers of an Israeli family, witnesses said.

Locals and Palestinian security sources said around 20 Israeli jeeps had entered Awarta village before dawn and imposed a curfew, but had not begun searching houses.

The village, which lies just south of Nablus, was the centre of a massive manhunt in the aftermath of the grisly stabbing of a couple and their three young children, one of them a baby, in the nearby colony of Itamar.

Following the murders, which took place on the evening of March 11, troops entered Awarta and imposed a curfew for five straight days, conducting house-to-house searches for the killers, claimed by Israelis to be Palestinian.

Around 60 villagers were detained for questioning, but so far no one has been charged, with the military refusing to comment on the operation.