Israel Levels 2 Homes in West Bank

Israeli soldiers destroyed two houses belonging to suspected West Bank militants Friday and reportedly arrested a Palestinian whom they link to the shooting death of an Israeli baby last year.

A senior aide to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat left Friday for consultations in several Arab capitals as Israeli-Palestinian security talks hit a stalemate and violence continued.

The military announced that it blew up the house of Iyad Sawalha, an Islamic Jihad member whom Israel holds responsible for planning a suicide attack in which a bomber blew himself up in a car next to an Israeli bus June 5 in the northern Israeli town of Megiddo. The attack left 17 passengers dead.

Residents of the village of Kafr Rai near the West Bank city of Tulkarm said 12 people were rendered homeless after troops flattened the two-story house overnight. Sawalha was in hiding elsewhere, according to the army.

Troops in Anabta, also near Tulkarm, knocked down the family home of Murad abu Asal, who blew himself up Jan. 30, wounding two Israeli soldiers.

Israel has demolished at least 20 homes of suicide bombers and suspected militants since late July in an attempt to dissuade other Palestinians from carrying out attacks.

The Supreme Court upheld the policy Aug. 6. The Palestinians and human rights groups denounce the practice as collective punishment.

Israel regularly demolished militants’ homes--more than 400 of them, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem--during the Palestinians’ 1987-93 intifada.

The Israeli government, which had largely halted the practice since the creation of the Palestinian Authority, renewed the demolitions amid the current uprising.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said on its Internet site that the army on Friday arrested suspected sniper Sudki Zaro, whom Israel linked to the killing of 10-month-old Shalhevet Pas. The army refused to comment.

Israel had said Shalhevet was shot in the head March 26, 2001, by a sniper as she lay in the arms of her father in the divided West Bank city of Hebron. The shot came from a hill in the Palestinian-controlled part of Hebron, Israeli officials said at the time. Her father was wounded in the leg.

Meanwhile, Palestinians and Israelis have been meeting for days to work out a plan for easing tensions, so far making little progress.

Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Cabinet minister, left Friday on a trip to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt to brief leaders of Arab states seen as key Mideast mediators about the meetings with the Israelis, a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity.