Israeli armed forces seized more Palestinian areas on Thursday, after a second suicide bomb attack on Jerusalem in two days killed six Israelis including a five-year-old girl.
The suicide bombing forced US President George Bush to delay his much-anticipated public push for Middle East peace, worried his words would fall on deaf ears.
Thirty-seven people were wounded, including six seriously, when the bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop in Arab east Jerusalem, in what was seen as an act of defiance toward Israel just as it unveiled a new get-tough policy toward the Palestinians.
The attack, claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — an armed group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement — came a day after a Palestinian blew himself up on a bus carrying commuters and schoolchildren in southern Jerusalem, killing 19 Israelis and wounding 50.
Just hours after the latest kamikaze strike, Israeli infantry units backed by armoured vehicles entered the Palestinian-controlled West Bank town of Bethlehem and the outskirts of Ramallah, witnesses said.
Troops backed by some 60 tanks and armoured troop carriers and helicopters, moved into Bethlehem from several directions, and took up positions in the centre of the town near the Church of the Nativity and Dheisheh refugee camp.
Some 20 tanks and armoured personnel carriers entered the town of Bitunyia, on the southeastern edge of Ramallah, which is where Arafat’s headquarters are located, security sources said.
The units then took up positions in an abandoned building in Beitunia near the West Bank city. Some sporadic gunfire could be heard in the city, but Israeli army radio said the forces met no resistance.
An Israeli military representative refused to comment on the two operations, which followed an Israeli government announcement of a new hardline policy to seize and occupy Palestinian territory for as long as the attacks continue.
A statement from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office pledged ”a change in the way Israel responds to murderous acts of terror.
Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing PA territory.” Israel blamed the latest suicide bombing directly on Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
”Instead of helping Bush (to make peace) it supports terrorism,” said Gideon Meir, a senior foreign ministry official. ”They speak two languages, one of words and one of facts on the ground.
”Israel will continue with its actions in self-defence to stop the terrorists before they carry out their crimes,” he said.
Arafat himself later issued a call on his fellow Palestinians for a ”complete halt” to all attacks on Israeli civilians.
”In line with my responsibilities, I announce my concern in the interest of our people and our future, my total condemnation of all operations targeting Israeli civilians, which have nothing to do with our legitimate right to resist (Israeli) occupation.”
As Israel pressed its new tactics, a Palestinian security official and two Israeli soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a clash in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, where the army rolled in after Tuesday’s bombing, an Israeli military spokesman announced Thursday.
The army also moved into the town Jenin and its refugee camp, scenes of the heaviest fighting in Israel’s recent military offensive on the West Bank, and began rounding up hundreds of residents, Palestinian sources said.
Israeli helicopter gunships also fired missiles on several metal factories in the Gaza Strip late on Wednesday, wounding six people, Palestinian security and hospital sources said.
Also overnight on Wednesday, a Palestinian was killed during an aborted attack on a secondary school in a Jewish settlement near Hebron, Israeli public radio reported.
The latest bloodshed came at a crucial moment in the Middle East conflict, with Bush trying to finalize a peace strategy based around the declaration of a Palestinian state.
The White House said that in the wake of the carnage, Bush would not be making any immediate announcement on his blueprint to end the nearly 21-month-old conflict.
”The president wants to give a speech at a time when it will have the maximum impact to bring the maximum prospects for peace to the region,” White House representative Ari Fleischer told reporters.
The US leader had been expected to lay out this week his vision for Middle East peace, which is expected to include steps towards creating a Palestinian state with temporary borders while demanding the Palestinians enact sweeping reforms to make Israel more secure.
Late Wednesday, Bush discussed the issue with top foreign policy advisers during a regularly scheduled National Security Council meeting.
Aides say the establishment of a permanent Palestinian state could be the reward for ambitious political and security reforms and an end of attacks on Israel. It was unclear what timetable the president would set.
Fleischer said Bush had largely made up his mind what to say, and would do so soon, but: ”It’s hard to get people to focus on peace, today, when they’re still suffering from the consequences of terrorism.” – Sapa-AFP