Israel Considers Retaliation

Israel Considers Retaliation
JERUSALEM (AP) - Tearful, angry Israelis prepared to bury teen-agers killed in a suicide bomb attack as the nation's leaders huddled Sunday to consider retaliation, while Palestinians tried to enforce a cease-fire but braced for a blow.

A girl wounded in Friday's bombing outside a disco in Tel Aviv died early Sunday, a hospital official said, raising the death toll in the attack to 20, including the bomber. Ninety people were injured, and several remained in critical condition.

The front pages of Israel's Sunday newspapers showed pictures of young people - most of them recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union - who were killed by the bomb wrapped with nails and bolts. The girl who died early Sunday was 14 years old.

There were no official claims of responsibility. Abu Dhabi television reported that the bomber came from Jordan and identified him as Said Hassan Khudari. Israel army radio said the suspect was originally from Qalqilya in the West Bank but moved to Jordan, where he served in the army.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) met with his defense and foreign ministers before a regular Sunday Cabinet session, weighing the significance of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s first public call for a cease-fire. The Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) said orders were sent out to field commanders to hold fire after more than eight months of violence, but Israelis were skeptical.

``Arafat states that he is ready to do what is needed for a cease-fire. He doesn't just come out and say, let's have a cease-fire,'' Dore Gold, a senior policy adviser to Sharon, told The Associated Press.

The militant group Hamas, which has taken responsibility for many bomb attacks in the past, said it would not honor a cease-fire.

On Sunday morning, Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli army vehicle in the West Bank, the military said. Earlier, Palestinians fired at Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites), and at an Israeli army outpost. No injuries were reported.

Responding to the suicide bombing, Israel canceled its self-proclaimed cease-fire, said Cabinet minister Ephraim Sneh. On May 22, Sharon ordered his army not to take offensive actions, allowing gunfire only in life-threatening circumstances.

Finance Minister Silvan Shalom said Sunday that Israel is now relating to Arafat's regime as a ``model of a terrorist state'' on a par with Iran.

In an incident Sunday, two Palestinians were killed and a third critically injured when their truck overturned. Palestinian security said Jewish settlers fired at the car, riddling it with bullets. Israeli police spokesman Rafi Yaffe disputed that account, saying a problem with the truck caused the crash.

Police stations and offices of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were deserted Sunday morning, as the Palestinians braced for an Israeli retaliation. Shalom said the security Cabinet, meeting in a rare session on the Jewish Sabbath Saturday, had approved targets to strike.

The Israeli army closed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an effort to prevent any more bomb attacks. Soldiers also blocked roads in and out of Palestinian towns, reimposing restrictions that crippled the Palestinian economy over the first months of the conflict but were eased recently.

Since assuming authority in Palestinian parts of Gaza and the West Bank in 1994, Arafat has hesitated to crack down on militant groups, fearing a civil war. From time to time, at Israel's insistence, Arafat's police have rounded up militants.

Israeli officials say that since fighting broke out last September, Arafat has supported militant groups and allowed them to recruit bombers and prepare explosives without interference. Since the fighting erupted, 484 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 107 on the Israeli side.

Friday's blast was the deadliest since a series of suicide bombings by Islamic militants in early 1996.

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