Jerusalem

Dozens of Jewish settler families in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank have begun searching for new homes inside Israel in light of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s proposal to evacuate the communities, an Israeli official and real estate agents said on Monday.

The Palestinians warned on Tuesday that the United States will torpedo the peace process if it bows to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s pledge to keep control of West Bank settlement blocks. Shortly before flying out to Washington overnight, Sharon vowed to maintain Israeli control over six such blocks.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon renewed his threats against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Monday, risking more international criticism, as security forces went on high alert for Passover. Sharon was slapped down last week by his allies in Washington after giving an interview in which he warned that Arafat is a ”marked man”.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to meet three top United States envoys on Wednesday in a bid to pin down Washington’s support for his Gaza pull-out plan after warning that ”dangerous initiatives” could be forced on Israel unless the deadlock in the peace process is broken.

Jewish settlers with assault rifles slung over their shoulders moved into two buildings in a crowded Arab neighbourhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday, sparking clashes between Israeli troops and Arab residents. Palestinians said the incident proved Israel was more interested in expanding settlements than in making peace.

Israel’s battle-hardened warrior Ariel Sharon is facing the fight of his political life with a corruption scandal threatening to bring him down just as he approaches the defining moment of his premiership. Sharon is to hold a crunch meeting with United States President George Bush in April to secure backing for his plans to pull out of the Gaza Strip.

A series of first attempts by Palestinian militants to avenge the death of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin failed, but the radical Islamic movement promised on Friday they were only ”the beginning”. Israeli soldiers shot dead two heavily armed Hamas militants overnight who had infiltrated a southern Gaza Strip settlement.

Israeli officials have ordered settlers to leave six unauthorised West Bank settlement outposts by Thursday afternoon, saying that if they stay the military will forcibly remove them, according to the Defence Ministry. The deadline was set after the settlers exhausted their appeals of an initial government order.

Israeli and Palestinian newspapers splashed the world court hearing on Israel’s West Bank barrier across their front pages on Tuesday, with predictably radically different takes on the legal and public relations battle. One Israeli paper carried an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which he mocked the court hearings.

A bomb attack on a bus in west Jerusalem on Sunday killed ”several people”, police said, while Israeli public radio spoke of at least 30 wounded. ”There have been several killed and many injured. The number 14 bus was packed and the explosion happened in the bus,” police spokesperson Micky Levy told public radio.

Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to hand over Arab Israeli towns to the Palestinians in exchange for settlement land in the West Bank in a future deal, his spokesperson Ranaan Gissin said on Tuesday. ”These exchanges can only take place if we have a Palestinian partner and terrorism is stifled,” Gissin said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a newspaper on Monday he plans to dismantle 17 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip without waiting for a peace deal with the Palestinians — his most detailed comment yet on the removal of settlements.

A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem on Thursday, killing at least 10 bystanders and wounding about 30 in an attack outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence, police and paramedics said. Sharon was not in the area. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A suicide bomber blew up on a bus in Jerusalem on Thursday, killing at least 10 bystanders and wounding about 30 in an attack outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence, police and paramedics said. The prime minister wasn’t in the area.

Israel has come up with a new system aimed to stop suicide bombers boarding buses before blowing themselves up, by detecting the explosives they are carrying. The system takes the form of a turnstile fitted with shields that contain sensors which can detect explosive materials a distance of up to a metre from the bus.

For months Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s bitterest opponents have gleefully speculated on the nature of his downfall. Would he be toppled by the ”Greek island affair” allegedly involving millions of dollars in bribes and plans to build an exotic casino on a tiny island in the Aegean Sea?

Tensions ran high on Israel’s northern border on Tuesday after the army threatened retaliation for a Hezbollah attack that killed one soldier and wounded another, despite suggestions they might have strayed into Lebanese territory. Defence sources said the army was considering a retaliatory strike deep inside Lebanon.

Splits emerged in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s inner circle on Monday over possible changes to the path of the controversial West Bank barrier as Israeli police went on high alert for attacks in Tel Aviv. A police spokesperson said there had been warnings of a series of planned attacks by Palestinian militants in Israel’s largest city.

Schools across Israel were shut on Tuesday as local council leaders failed to resolve a dispute with ministers over a decision to cut more than -million from the education budget. While teachers were not officially on strike, staff such as security guards whose attendance is required by law were staying at home.

A Palestinian suicide bombing at a bus stop outside Tel Aviv killed four young Israelis just minutes after an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car in Gaza, killing a senior Islamic Jihad commander and four others. The attacks on Thursday were the first of their kind in more than two months.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qorei are expected to meet next week, amid fears of renewed violence as seven religious Jews were wounded on Friday in a Palestinian attack at a West Bank holy site. ”I believe that the meeting will take place within days,” Qorei said in a media interview.

The Supreme Court in Israel on Wednesday ordered the younger son of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to hand over personal documents that police say will prove he accepted an illegal ,5-million loan from a South African businessman. Police have obtained depositions from their South African counterparts about the loan.

The Israeli government is considering legal action against the Israeli distributor and the German producer of a soy-based baby food believed to have caused the death of three babies and the serious illness of at least 16 in Israel in the past six months.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is set to be grilled by police on Wednesday over a simmering corruption scandal involving two of his sons that he has so far fought to brush under the carpet. He will be asked about allegations involving the use of a ,5-million loan from a South African businessman, Cyril Kern.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that Israel has no plans to kill Yasser Arafat but blamed the veteran Palestinian leader for the deaths of thousands of civilians. ”I don’t see any plans to kill him although the man is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews, mostly civilians,” said Sharon.