Lethal Israeli response fails to materialise

ISRAELI forces briefly raided the West Bank town of Bethlehem yesterday and dynamited the home of a Palestinian who blew up a Jerusalem bus. The move was far short of a large-scale reprisal customary after a deadly suicide attack.

Israel’s leadership was divided over how hard to hit back but appeared to have decided on a measured response after a meeting yesterday between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz.

In the Gaza Strip, the Islamic militant Hamas group belatedly claimed responsibility yesterday for the bombing, which killed 10 Israelis and wounded more than 50. A rival faction linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement initially said it sent the bomber.

If Hamas was behind the attack, it would mark a significant change in tactics. Hamas had held off on carrying out bombings in Israel for nearly six months, in an Egyptian-brokered effort to reach a ceasefire with Israel.

In another sign the Islamic militant group is changing course, its leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin declared yesterday his group is making an all-out effort to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Yassin spoke a day after a prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. Israel released more than 400 prisoners, mostly Palestinians, in exchange for a businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

About 7,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody.

In other developments yesterday troops shot and killed an Islamic Jihad member, Jihad Suwaiti, near the West Bank city of Hebron. In the Gaza Strip, a tank crew shot and killed two Palestinians.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, troops demolished six houses where Hamas militants captured by Israeli forces used to live.