The worst bus bombing in the past three years of intifada pushed the Palestinian leadership this week towards the confrontation with Islamic fundamentalists it has spent months trying to avoid.
Meanwhile the Israeli government threatened military action against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, while saying it remained committed to the faltering road map to peace process.
Its Defence Minister, Shaul Mofaz, urged Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to react with a ”forceful military response” to Tuesday night’s suicide bombing of a Jerusalem bus packed with ultra-Orthodox Jews, which killed 20 people, including six children, three of them American.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas ordered his forces to hunt down the Hamas activists who were responsible for organising the bombing. ”Instructions were given to Palestinian security services to pursue those who were behind the operation and to bring them to justice,” Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said.
Abbas was expected to convene his Cabinet to decide what other measures to take against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, under considerable Israeli pressure to disarm and detain their key activists. Abbas has resisted imposing a general crackdown on the Islamic groups, arguing that it could lead to a civil war and that it is better to draw them into the political process. — Â