Troops show Israel's intent

JERUSALEM - Pledging to "put the brakes on terror", Israel says it will exert constant military pressure on the Palestinian Authority and militant groups after a rash of deadly attacks that stunned the country.

An official statement yesterday said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet had approved a plan for action in response to a surge of violence that killed 21 Israelis within 24 hours and threw international peace efforts deeper into doubt.

In a sign of military steps to come, Israeli tanks and troops stormed into the Palestinian-ruled Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, sparking heavy street fighting with local gunmen.

Palestinian witnesses said several dozen tanks and other military vehicles entered the camp from the north as troops penetrated its southern gateway. Two helicopters hovered overhead.

There was no immediate word of casualties.

Earlier, Israeli troops entered the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, firing heavy machineguns and killing a Palestinian civilian.

Palestinian security sources said an Israeli bulldozer wrecked at least one house in the camp and the soldiers' entry drew return fire from gunmen.

An Israeli military source said troops were engaged in a "limited operation" in Rafah.

Sharon, under mounting pressure to deliver a coherent policy to end 17 months of bloodshed, met key ministers for more than five hours to thrash out the plan of action.

No details emerged and the statement said that only that an inner security circle of ministers had been apprised of the specifics.

The statement said the plan involved putting "continuous military pressure on the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist organisations which aims to put the brakes on Palestinian terror".

On Sunday, a lone Palestinian gunman on a hill overlooking a military checkpoint in the West Bank shot dead seven Israeli soldiers and three Jewish settlers in one of the boldest attacks on an Army position since the conflict began.

Twelve hours earlier, Palestinian suicide bomber Mohammed Daraghmeh walked into a crowd in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Jerusalem at the end of the Jewish Sabbath and blew himself up, killing nine people, including five children.

The two attacks, and the killings of two more Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, made it one of the highest Israeli tolls in a single day.

All four attacks were claimed by an armed group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, as revenge for the killing of up to 30 Palestinians in Israeli raids on two West Bank refugee camps.

In retaliation, Israeli forces including helicopter gunships and tanks attacked Palestinian police and security targets in the West Bank, one several hundred metres from Arafat's office in Ramallah.

At least four Palestinians were killed.

Sharon has used everything from F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships to naval vessels and undercover squads sent to kill suspected militants to try to quell the Palestinian uprising.

Last week, in an operation that caused an international outcry, Israeli troops stormed refugee camps in the northern West Bank on a hunt for alleged gunmen and bombers. The operation wound down on Sunday.

Israeli commentators said measures that might now be taken included increasing the scope of reprisal strikes and raids.

An Israeli political source said Sharon had also proposed tightening restrictions on Arafat, confined by Israeli forces to the West Bank town of Ramallah since December.

- REUTERS

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