Tel Aviv bombings keep lid on curfews

The Israeli Government says it has shelved plans to ease a 24-hour curfew on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in West Bank towns, in response to two Palestinian militant attacks in as many days that killed at least 11 people.

It also said it was dropping plans to hold meetings with moderate Palestinian leaders.

A double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Thursday killed three people, as well as the two suicide bombers.

Israeli police said two of the dead were foreign workers. Twenty-five of the wounded were still in hospital, four of them reported to be in serious condition.

The attack came a day after eight Jewish settlers were killed when their bus was ambushed by Palestinian gunmen. The two attacks shattered more than three weeks of calm, in which there were no serious attacks and no Israeli civilians were killed.

The news that Israel's initial response is to maintain restrictions on Palestinians rather than take more severe action shows how few options appear to be left to Ariel Sharon's Government.

The Israeli Army has already reoccupied seven of the eight major West Bank towns, where it is in full control.

The Israeli authorities argue the curfew is the only way to protect Israel from militant attacks - even though those responsible for the attacks this week got through.

In Washington, where three Arab ministers met President George W. Bush yesterday, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said the United States needed to rethink its plans for the Middle East and accept that Yasser Arafat was the only Palestinian leader capable of signing a peace deal with Israel.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were in Washington to push forward their proposals for a Middle East settlement.

One of the proposals involves having Arab security experts train a restructured Palestinian security force, but only once Israeli forces withdraw from Palestinian territories.

In Jerusalem a rabbi has declared that the Israeli Army has the right to execute soldiers who disobey orders, adding a new element to an already heated debate over soldiers who refuse to serve in the West Bank.

In an article in a weekly pamphlet titled With Love and Faith, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, the rabbi of the West Bank settlement of Beit El, ruled that rabbinical precedents decree the Army's top commander has the right to execute a soldier who disobeys an order.

Aviner's comments angered Israelis who back compromise for peace with the Palestinians. Many of them support the stance of several hundred Israeli reserve combat soldiers who are refusing to serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

Dovish lawmaker Mossi Raz accused Aviner of incitement for political reasons.

"How long will society ignore the behaviour of people like Rabbi Aviner?" Raz asked on Israel Radio.

In another development, police said five Israelis have been arrested on suspicion of selling thousands of rounds of ammunition to Palestinian militants.

Two of those detained live in Adora, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Their arrests shocked the small community. Adora was the scene of a shooting by Palestinian gunmen on May 27 that killed four people, including a 5-year-old girl.

Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the men were suspected of selling military ordnance to "terrorists".

- INDEPENDENT, AGENCIES

Feature: Middle East

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