Israelis raze homes of suicide bomb squad

ISRAELI troops yesterday destroyed the homes of a teenaged suicide bomber and two men who dispatched him to a crowded Tel Aviv market where he killed three Israelis and wounded 32.

The relatively muted response came after Israel pledged to show restraint in the wake of Yasser Arafat's illness.

The usual signs of an imminent Israeli military counterstrike the hurried high-level security meetings and troop movements were absent this time, and it appeared that Israel would not hit back as it has in the past.

Troops razed the home of the bomber, 16-year-old Eli Amer Alfar, and damaged four neighbouring houses in the crowded Askar refugee camp near Nablus, witnesses said.

The army also destroyed the homes of two senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In Nablus, Israeli undercover troops killed three Palestinian militants affiliated with Mr Arafat's Fatah movement in a gunbattle in the city's crowded centre late Monday night.

Witnesses said some of the soldiers disguised themselves in the head-to-toe coverings of Muslim women and carried trays of sweets as they approached the militants sitting in a coffee shop.