Israel Halts Land Shift to Palestinians

A day after an unprecedented triple suicide bombing here, Israel said Friday that it will halt all further land transfers to the Palestinian Authority until the Palestinians rein in militant Islamic groups that attack Israeli civilians.

Israel had hinted before the bombings that it was not ready to turn over more land to the Palestinians. Nonetheless, Friday’s announcement marked the first time the Israeli government has explicitly linked its demand for a Palestinian crackdown against the extremist groups with its willingness to transfer further territory.

“We cannot accept a situation in which we are asked to hand over more land to the Palestinian Authority while it does not fight terrorism,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after an emergency session of his top security advisors.

Palestinian officials expressed anger but no surprise at Israel’s tough talk. Several accused Netanyahu of using the Thursday bombings on the bustling Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall as an excuse to scuttle the interim peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians.

“This decision exposes the real position of Mr. Netanyahu, which was that he was against the implementation of the agreements from the beginning,” said Marwan Kanafani, a close advisor to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

Israel and the Palestinians have been arguing over the date of Israel’s second scheduled pullback from territory it occupies in the West Bank, with the Palestinians saying the deadline is Sunday and Israelis placing the date in mid-November. Israel now says it will not abide by either date unless Arafat takes unspecified but tougher action against terrorism.

The latest bombings, and the harsh rhetoric that followed, are expected to increase the already daunting challenge awaiting Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when she makes her first official visit to the region next week. Albright is scheduled to arrive here at midweek for two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Also Friday, Israel again threatened to send security forces into Palestinian-ruled areas to seize militants if Arafat does not take tougher action against them. In overnight raids Thursday, Israeli forces arrested 69 suspected members of extremist Palestinian organizations but did not enter areas outside its own control, an army spokesman said.

It remained unclear Friday how long that situation might last.

“If the Palestinian Authority will not crack down on the terrorist infrastructure, we will have to do something ourselves to protect our citizens,” said David Bar-Illan, a senior aide to Netanyahu.

Palestinian police did arrest about 10 members of the militant Hamas organization in the West Bank and Gaza Strip early Friday, and closed a Hamas newspaper there. Unconfirmed reports said that as many as nine more activists were arrested during the day Friday.

Bar-Illan said the actions were insignificant in the effort to convince the Palestinians to launch a sweeping campaign against terrorism.

Thursday’s explosions, for which an offshoot of Hamas claimed responsibility, killed four people along with the three assailants. Officials said 192 people were wounded. The slain victims were a 20-year-old man and three 14-year-old girls, two of whom had gone to the popular street to purchase a birthday present for a friend. All were Israelis.

Immediately after the bombings--the second multiple attack in Jerusalem in the past five weeks--Israeli officials reimposed a tight closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, barring Palestinians from entering Israel or traveling between their own towns and villages. Sanctions dating from the previous bombings, which occurred July 30, had just been partly eased.

In choosing Ben Yehuda Street, the attackers struck at the heart of Jewish West Jerusalem, a pleasant, tree-shaded promenade that is popular with Israelis and foreign tourists alike.

On Friday, hundreds visited the street, strolling along its length to gaze at the broken windows and tattered awnings of restaurants and souvenir shops damaged in the blasts. But the crowds were smaller and more subdued than usual for a Friday, the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, and police and border guards were out in force.

Israeli security officials said they have yet to identify the three young men who stood a few yards apart on Ben Yehuda Street, made eye contact with one another and then calmly detonated their charges. The officials also remain stumped about the identities of the two men who carried out the July 30 bombings in a produce market a few blocks from the scene of Thursday’s attack.

Netanyahu told reporters that Israel has intelligence information--aside from the claim of responsibility--to link Hamas to the latest attack.

The Israeli leader also dismissed Arafat’s claim that the assailants, along with those who carried out the bombings in July, came from areas outside his control. “We aren’t talking about Hamas in Tibet but about Hamas here, in Palestinian Authority territory,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel One television.