Israeli troops demolish terror suspects' houses

ISRAELI troops demolished three houses of Palestinian terror suspects yesterday, while Jewish settler leaders inaugurated a new Jewish settlement near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Israel maintained its siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters for a seventh day, ignoring a call by the UN Security Council to end operations there and withdraw from Palestinian cities.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel would not comply with the resolution because Palestinians are not meeting the Security Council's demands to halt attacks on Israelis and arrest those responsible. Peres said Israeli and Palestinian officials were slated to resume negotiations yesterday to try to end the standoff at Arafat's compound.

But Palestinian officials said a meeting was cancelled when Israel wouldn't let foreign officials meet Arafat.

Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel wants 19 terror suspects in Arafat's office to surrender and the rest are not important. In the southern West Bank, Israeli troops blew up three houses, including one belonging to the leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the town of Hebron, Abdel Khaled Natche, Palestinian witnesses said. Soldiers gave family members 10 minutes to remove belongings before a huge explosion levelled the structure In another demolition, troops blew up the house of the fugitive leader of the Islamic Jihad group in Hebron, Diab Shweiki, who escaped an Israeli missile attack on his vehicle several months ago.

A third house was levelled in the nearby town of Dura. The three-story building was the family home of brothers Anis and Iyad Amoura, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement. Meanwhile, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, Jewish settlers celebrated the establishment of Rehalim, describing it as a settlement of 14 houses that will be home to 24 families.

Successive Israeli governments have said they would expand settlements but not establish new ones on land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.