Sharon arrives home for meeting on suicide bombs

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon arrived home early today after cutting short a trip to India to consider his response to two Palestinian suicide bombings, as an official said options included invading Gaza or expelling Yasser Arafat.

Sharon planned to convene senior Cabinet ministers and security commanders for urgent talks after a pair of bombers killed 15 Israelis in attacks in central Israel and Jerusalem just six hours apart on Tuesday.

The violence underscored the collapse of US-brokered peace efforts and came amid political uncertainty after the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, whose successor was expected to name his Cabinet today.

An official on Sharon’s plane blamed Arafat for the bombings. “Arafat is responsible because of his strategy to try to have a political process alongside terror,” the official said.

Hardliners in Sharon’s Cabinet have long clamoured for the expulsion of Arafat. Up to now Sharon has rebuffed the deportation calls, fearing international condemnation.

The official stopped short of detailing what Israel’s response would be, saying the security Cabinet would have to decide.

The body, made up of senior ministers, was to convene later today after Sharon met military commanders and the defence minister, the official said. Another official said expulsion of Arafat of invading Gaza were on the agenda.

Meanwhile witnesses reported Israeli troop movements in Ramallah. Israel is in control of the West Bank Palestinian town, trapping Arafat in his office building for more than a year.

Israeli forces blew up two houses early today – one in Ramallah, south of Arafat’s compound, and the other in the suburb of Beitunia. Both blasts could be heard at the compound, where tension was high but no unusual activity was seen.

Meanwhile, in one of the most strident comments yet from the mainstream Israeli press, the Jerusalem Post called for killing Arafat.

“We must kill as many of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders as possible, as quickly possible, while minimising collateral damage, but not letting that damage stop us,” the English-language daily wrote in an editorial today. ”And we must kill Yasser Arafat, because the world leaves us no alternative.”

The Hamas military wing claimed responsibility for the Tuesday suicide bombings, saying in a statement that the attacks “came as the beginning of our retaliation for the enemy’s crimes against our people”.

The Hamas leadership is in Gaza, but the bombers infiltrated into Israel from the West Bank.

A spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, loosely linked to Arafat’s Fatah movement, said his group was also behind one of the bombings outside an army base near Tel Aviv. That raised fears of a third suicide bomber roaming Israel, ready to strike.

The explosion at the bus stop killed eight soldiers, and the second blast five hours later killed a security guard and six patrons at a popular Jerusalem coffee house. Dozens of bystanders were wounded.

Among the dead in the Jerusalem attack were two US citizens, a doctor who was chief in a hospital emergency room and his daughter, who was to be married the following day.

In initial retaliation, Israeli planes levelled the house of Mahmoud Zahar, a top spokesman of the violent Islamic Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the two suicide attacks.

The half-ton bomb wounded Zahar and killed his eldest son and a bodyguard. It marked the first time a Hamas leader has been attacked in his home, an escalation of Israel’s campaign against the Islamic militant group. Twenty-five people were wounded, including Zahar’s wife and a daughter.

In response, Hamas threatened more attacks against Israel, aiming at Israeli houses and high-rises. “Targeting homes is violating all red lines,” Hamas said in a statement.

Amid the escalating violence, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Ahmed Qureia, accepted Arafat’s appointment as prime minister, replacing Abbas, who resigned over the weekend.