Israel destroys bomber's home

By MEGAN GOLDIN

The Israeli Army destroyed the West Bank home of one of two Palestinian suicide bombers yesterday, a day after 16 people were killed in back-to-back bus bombings by the militant Hamas group.

The action came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the Army to hunt down Palestinian militants.

Sharon said the bombings - the first in five months - would not deter him from evacuating the Gaza Strip next year, but pledged a steadfast battle against militants who have stepped up attacks before a pullout.

"We will fight this terror with all our might," Sharon said after the attacks in the southern city of Beersheba.

Security sources declined to reveal details of the decisions made at the security meeting other than to say there would be heightened efforts to kill or arrest militants.

The last time Sharon held such consultations, after a suicide bombing in March that killed 10 people at the Ashdod port, the Army assassinated Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, two top leaders from Hamas behind the attack.

Hamas, a militant Islamic group sworn to destroy Israel, said the bombings were in revenge for Yassin and Rantissi.

The attacks - the deadliest since last October - show Hamas is not a spent force even after repeated Israeli assassinations of their leaders and the building of a West Bank barrier.

"Revenge is so sweet," said one Hamas activist at a rally in Gaza.

Cheering in the streets of the Gaza Strip after the bombings, thousands of Hamas supporters threw sweets into the air and sang songs after the attack that killed 16 people and wounded 86, many of them shoppers returning from an open-air market.

Soldiers blew up the first floor of a two-storey home where one of the bombers lived in the West Bank city of Hebron, witnesses said.

The family of the second bomber was told to move out their belongings, apparently in preparation for it to be destroyed as well, they added.

In the attack the bombers boarded buses at the same stop near Beersheba's central bus station and detonated bombs hidden under their clothes within minutes of each other along the same road.

"The bus simply blew up. It just blew up in front of my eyes," said motorist Joey Harel.

- REUTERS