Israeli helicopters attack Palestinian targets

Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Palestinian buildings in Nablus after two Israeli teenagers were killed in a suicide bomb attack in a nearby Jewish settlement.

In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian policeman who had been wounded in a clash with Israeli soldiers, died in a hospital.

The missiles hit the headquarters of the Nablus governor, a police station, an empty residence intended for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on his visits to the city, and an apartment block, witnesses say.

A resident of the apartment block was slightly injured.

The helicopter attack followed a suicide bombing in a pizza restaurant at the Jewish settlement of Karnei Shomron in which a 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy were killed, and 27 people were wounded, seven of them seriously.

Karnei Shomron lies between Qalqilya and Nablus.

The army says the helicopter attack was launched "in the wake of murderous attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers".

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the second biggest group in the PLO, claimed responsibility for the bombing, in a leaflet and a phone call to The Associated Press.

The bomber was an 18 year-old house painter from the West Bank city of Qalqilya.

Israel holds Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat responsible for the current wave of Palestinian bombing and shooting attacks. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government maintains that Arafat could prevent the attacks but fails to do so.