Mideast Attacks Leave 10 Dead

Israel on Tuesday killed three top commanders of a militia loyal to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, and Palestinians fired long-range rockets for the first time into an Israeli city, amid shrill cries for revenge and growing despair, fear and hate.

In rapid-fire succession, Israelis and Palestinians attacked each other throughout the day and night and braced for more violence as fighting here escalated to its deadliest level yet.

The Israeli air force bombarded Palestinian targets in at least six West Bank and Gaza Strip towns after five Israelis were killed in two shootings--at a Tel Aviv restaurant and on a road used by Jewish settlers--and in a suicide-bomb blast on a bus. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, affiliated with Arafat, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Five Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed early today as Israeli tanks and troops thrust into five areas of the Gaza Strip.

More Israelis and Palestinians have been killed in the past week than at any time in the last 17 months of raging bloodshed, and at a pace not seen since the days of regional war.

The nature of this conflict has shifted markedly. After months of tit-for-tat violence, Israel is now engaged in a sustained military campaign aimed at inflicting massive damage. And on the other side, the well-organized, well-armed Al Aqsa brigade has assumed the lead in Palestinian fighting, aimed at exacting the maximum price through guerrilla operations.

Leaders on both sides have clearly opted to pursue a military solution, even though public support for one is uncertain. A poll published in Tel Aviv on Tuesday shows that a majority of Israelis are convinced that more military force will not improve their security and that a significant number long for a diplomatic initiative.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that there is “no diplomatic horizon” to speak of and that inflicting as much damage as possible on the Palestinians is the only way to stop the violence. Sharon has given short shrift to two recent Arab peace initiatives--one from Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and the other from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

And Palestinian officials demanded international intervention but made it clear that they will not act to rein in gunmen and militants, despite requests from Washington, Europe and Israel that they do so. Militia commanders declared that they will increase their attacks.

For four stormy hours, Israel’s deeply divided Cabinet met Tuesday to debate additional measures against Arafat and the Palestinians. The Cabinet decided to ban all Palestinian traffic on West Bank roads--trapping more than a million residents in their cities or towns. The decision on how to tighten a siege on Arafat was left up to the military. Sharon advocated sending tanks back to Arafat’s doorstep, but his defense minister opposed the move.

With the government considering complete reoccupation of the Palestinian territories and the dismantling of the government that Arafat heads, dovish Foreign Minister Shimon Peres hinted broadly Tuesday that he will quit--a step that would further destabilize Sharon’s ruling coalition.

Fearing new attacks, Israel put all its security services on maximum alert today and deployed additional armed guards to gasoline stations, bus depots, wedding halls, hotels and entertainment centers throughout the country.

After nightfall Tuesday in Beitunia, a suburb of the West Bank city of Ramallah, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile into a car carrying Mohammed abu Halaweh, a senior commander of the Al Aqsa brigade, and two other militia leaders, Fawzi Murar and Omar Qaddan. All three were killed, and a fourth man with them was seriously wounded.

Israeli officials said the men were responsible for at least 10 deadly attacks on Israelis, including Saturday’s suicide bombing in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood that killed 10 Israelis. The military said Abu Halaweh was behind a December 2000 shooting that killed Binyamin Kahane, son of the late anti-Arab rabbi Meir Kahane, and his wife.

The Al Aqsa brigade, a militia affiliated with Arafat’s Fatah movement, emerged when the current uprising erupted in September 2000.

Abu Halaweh previously served as bodyguard to top Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti but dropped that job after being wounded in an assassination attempt last year. He had also served for years in Force 17, Arafat’s presidential guard.

Speaking Tuesday night on an Arab satellite television network, Barghouti praised Abu Halaweh and demanded swift revenge. “His loss will have an impact on the organization, but I’m sure his comrades will fill his spot again and the response will come very soon,” Barghouti said. The “situation will deteriorate in the most horrible way you have ever seen,” he later told Israeli television.

Also Tuesday night, Palestinians fired long-range Kassam-2 rockets into Israel, hitting an apartment building in the Negev desert town of Sderot. It was the first time Palestinian militants who have been carrying out trial runs with the rockets had managed to hit a target in an Israeli city. A 1-year-old child was hurt.

Israel immediately retaliated, dispatching fighter jets, helicopters and warships to shell Arafat’s security compound in Gaza City, his parking lot, a police headquarters and a police academy. Early today, a massive incursion was underway in Gaza, with dozens of tanks and armored vehicles taking positions on the edge of Gaza City and in the northern and southern sectors of the strip.

Israeli officials had previously warned that the firing of the Kassam rockets would be viewed as an escalation and would not be tolerated. The missile has a range of about three miles but is not very precise.

In another incident, eight Arab children were slightly hurt early Tuesday when a bomb went off in their school playground in East Jerusalem’s Sour Baher village. Israeli police who arrived to investigate ended up clashing with the students in the kind of rioting that is typical in Palestinian-controlled areas but rare in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem.

A previously unknown Jewish extremist group claimed responsibility for the bomb in calls to Israeli reporters. Calling itself “Revenge of the Infants,” it said it was avenging the killings of Jewish children by Palestinians.

Villagers were shocked that the region’s violence had reached them. And they were furious at what they said was the slow response time by the Israeli police, who were called after pupils arriving at the all-boys school discovered the explosive device. The boys said it had been disguised to look like candy.

Police said they arrived about 20 minutes after they were called--and five minutes after the bomb exploded. Principal Musa Fawake said it took a full hour before the explosives experts arrived.

It is a sign of how badly the situation has deteriorated here that both the police sent in to protect the people and the people who needed the police saw each other as an enemy. The village has had rather friendly relations with neighboring Jewish communities and has even voted in Jerusalem elections.

Yet the anger at experiencing what villagers saw as second-class treatment boiled over. School officials and parents complained that they have begged for security guards for the school--all West Jerusalem schools have guards--but been denied.

The Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert of the right-wing Likud Party, arrived at the school to speak to the students and parents, but he was heckled and decided not to address the crowd.

Jerusalem Police Chief Mickey Levy said the possible role of Jewish extremists in planting the bomb would be investigated.