Violence erupts in West Bank today

Two Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian security official have died in the latest round of violence in Israel.

The deaths followed a clash between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

It comes just hours after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat appealed to his people to halt attacks on Israeli civilians after the second suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem in two days took the lives of seven Israelis.

Aides said Arafat planned to speak today, probably on television, to warn that the unrelenting suicide bomb attacks ‘‘have given the Israeli government the excuse to reoccupy our land’.

Yesterday Israel announced a new policy of taking control of Palestinian territory in retaliation for attacks, holding it ‘‘as long as terror continues’’.

Israeli forces moved into Bethlehem and nearby Dheisheh refugee camp, declaring a curfew and taking over controlling positions in the town, the military said in a statement today. Also, troops moved into Beitunia, a suburb of Ramallah, and searched for suspects.

The statement said soldiers would remain in the two locations ‘‘until the mission’s goals are accomplished’’.

Israeli troops were in control of two other towns, Jenin and Qalqiliya, setting up command posts and enforcing curfews, an example of the new Israeli policy.

Yesterday, a day after a bomber boarded a bus, blew it up and killed 19 Israelis, another suicide attacker ran past police to a Jerusalem bus stop and set off his explosives, killing himself, seven Israelis and wounding 37.

Israeli police had earlier put the number of victims at six but raised the number to seven today after forensic examination of body parts.

The bombing had immediate effects. Israeli helicopters and warplanes pounded Palestinian buildings in the Gaza Strip, wounding 13 Palestinians, while in Washington, US president George Bush postponed a much-anticipated speech about Middle East peace moves.

Yesterday’s attack took place at a busy intersection in northern Jerusalem. At the time when the bomber struck, just after 7pm (5pm Irish time), a large crowd of people waited at a string of concrete bus stops along the side of a main road leading to the Dead Sea and Jewish settlements east and north of Jerusalem.

The crowds there have been targeted by Palestinians several times during nearly 21 months of violence.

The blast wrecked the bus stop and left the wide street littered with personal belongings and body parts. Rescue workers covered an overturned baby carriage with black plastic sheeting.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated to Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

Hours later, Arafat’s aides disclosed the text of the speech he planned to make today, calling for an end to attacks against Israeli civilians because of the consequences to Palestinians.

Pointing to ‘‘Israeli aggression and military escalation’’, Arafat expresses his ‘‘full and comprehensive condemnation for all kinds of operations that target Israeli civilians’’, adding that this ‘‘does not have anything to do with our legal right of resisting the Israeli occupation and our right to defend our existence and holy places’’, according to the text.

He says the Palestinian Authority has already ‘‘taken many measures against those who were behind’’ the attacks and appeals: ‘‘I have to be honest with you - these operations must be totally stopped.’’ Otherwise, he warns, the result might be ‘‘full Israeli occupation of our lands’’.

Israeli analysts said the change in Israel’s policy to taking over Palestinian areas was a punishment for terror attacks, as opposed to the earlier practice of attacking Palestinian buildings or staging incursions aimed at arresting suspects or confiscating weapons and explosives.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and four wounded yesterday in Qalqiliya when a gun battle erupted after Israeli soldiers entered a house looking for a Hamas suspect. Hamas claimed responsibility for the Tuesday bus bombing.

Meanwhile an armed Palestinian who tried to break into a high school in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron, early today, was shot dead by soldiers, the military said.