Tanks rumble over fresh Mideast bombings

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is pursuing his drive to crack the will of Palestinians led by Yasser Arafat by sending tanks into another West Bank town in response to a wave of suicide bombings.

About 100 Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles thrust into the central West Bank town of Qalqilya yesterday for the second time in three weeks.

Residents reported heavy machinegun fire and explosions. They said the Israelis had cut power and water supplies before moving in.

The Army said a soldier was badly wounded and seven others were hurt when an explosive detonated during the search of a house.

Witnesses said gunfire erupted as two Israeli tanks, four troop carriers and a bulldozer moved through a village towards the Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the biblical West Bank town or the nearby town of Beit Jala, where Israeli armour has deployed to try to stop shooting at the adjacent Jewish settlement of Gilo, now attached to Jerusalem.

The latest Israeli incursions into Palestinian-ruled towns followed a televised speech by Sharon, who promised an "uncompromising war to uproot these savages" and crush what he called a terror campaign directed by Arafat.

Sharon's tough message followed a day of violence in which a suicide bomber killed 15 people in the Israeli port of Haifa and Arafat's guards battled Israeli troops besieging the Palestinian President's West Bank headquarters in Ramallah since Friday.

The Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas said a 22-year-old resident of a refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Jenin carried out the attack on its behalf.

The Army said it had rounded up more than 500 men for interrogation.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad urged Israel to end its assault on the West Bank or have the world force it out.



The spate of suicide bombings and the confrontation in Ramallah is fanning fears of bloodier clashes after 18 months of violence in the Palestinian uprising against Israel's 34-year-old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"This terrorism is activated, co-ordinated and directed by one man - Yasser Arafat," Sharon said in his speech, calling the Palestinian leader "the enemy of the free world."

Yesterday's suicide attacks increased to five the number since the Jewish Passover holiday began last Wednesday.

Sharon's broad coalition Government appears to be rallying around the tougher policy towards the Palestinians.

Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, chairman of the dovish Labour Party, told Israel Army radio yesterday: "Arafat's purpose is to intensify the terror.

"There is no doubt that we will no longer sit quietly. But we have no interest in taking control of the [Palestinian] territories again."

- REUTERS

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