Two die in suicide bomb blast

Two suspected suicide bombers died when their car exploded today just as Israeli police moved to stop the vehicle.

The incident was one of three instances today in which Israeli authorities said they managed to foil planned suicide attacks.

Despite the tensions, the Israeli army withdrew its tanks and troops to the outskirts of the West bank town of Jenin after a two-week manhunt that concluded with the killing on Saturday of an Islamic Jihad militant accused of orchestrating attacks that killed more than 30 people.

In today’s car explosion, police spotted a car that aroused their suspicions near a collective farm, Kibbutz Netzer, just on the Israeli side of the border with the northern West Bank. Police shouted for the driver and his companion to stop.

A moment later, the car blew up, said police, who suspect the pair were trying to carry out a suicide attack. It was not clear whether the Palestinians detonated the bomb intentionally or by accident, police said.

Throughout the West Bank, Israeli troops have been in or near Palestinian cities for nearly five months, imposing curfews and tough restrictions on Palestinian movements as part of an effort to keep militants from launching attacks. The number of attacks has declined.

But the soldiers’ presence has greatly disrupted Palestinian civilian life, and militants continue with attempts to carry out bombings and shootings, occasionally slipping past the Israeli dragnet.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told a Cabinet meeting that Palestinian militants were still making frequent attempts to carry out attacks, particularly from the northern West Bank.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has condemned suicide bombings, but says his security forces can’t function with the Israeli troops currently controlling Palestinian areas.

The militant Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have carried out most of the 84 Palestinian suicide attacks over the past two years, say they will keep up their campaign.

In other developments today, the army said it arrested two militants allegedly planning such bombings.

One, a 15-year-old youth from the West Bank city of Nablus, was on his way to carry out a suicide bombing when he was caught, the army said. The other described as a senior Hamas member who was masterminding an attack from the West Bank town of Hebron.

In Jenin, where the army says it arrested dozens of suspected militants, about 1,000 troops pulled out of the city, abandoning some 50 to 60 buildings used as observation posts and sniper positions, according to the army.

The army also arrested three suicide bombers during the two-week period, one with his explosive belt ready to set off from Jenin for Israel, and the other two still waiting to receive their explosives.

Life in Jenin regained a semblance of normalcy today. Children went to school for the first time in two weeks. Shops reopened and bulldozers began removing rubble from at least six buildings demolished by the army.

The army entered Jenin to search for militants following an October 21 suicide bombing by a pair of Islamic Jihad members who blew up their car next to a bus, killing 14 people on board.

The army found and killed the man it said was responsible for that bombing and an earlier bus attack that killed 17 people. Iyad Sawalha, was hiding in an apartment in Jenin’s casbah, taking cover behind a hidden wall in a kitchen, Israeli authorities said.

Soldiers charged into the apartment building, and Sawalha threw grenades and fired at troops, the Israelis said. Sawalha was killed after an operation that lasted five hours, and two soldiers were slightly injured, the army said.