Israel Mounts a Limited Response to Bus Attack

Israeli troops swept into the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday, making several arrests and demolishing the home of the suicide bomber responsible for a deadly bus attack in Jerusalem a day earlier.

But the troops were gone by late afternoon -- an apparent indication that the Israeli government had for the time being decided on a tempered response to the bus explosion, which killed 10 passengers and left dozens of people injured. Many previous terrorist attacks have been followed by major Israeli military incursions.

This time, Israeli forces zeroed in on the family home of the bomber, Ali Munir Jaara, in the Aida refugee camp on Bethlehem’s edge, and blew it up.

“Anyone who participates in terrorist action will pay a price for their action,” a military spokesman said Friday. Israel often destroys the homes of bombers following such attacks.

The question of responsibility for the blast was left murky Friday after the military wing of Hamas claimed that it had carried out the attack. On Thursday, the same claim was made by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia loosely affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction. Competing claims have been made after other attacks.

If Hamas were responsible, it would mean the group had resumed suicide bombings inside Israel after an apparent halt to such attacks. Hamas claimed to be behind a fatal bombing at a Gaza Strip border crossing two weeks ago, but it has not carried out a bombing within Israel since Sept. 9 strikes in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that killed 17 people, including the two bombers.

Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said Friday that the group’s military wing was responsible and would prove Jaara was acting on its behalf. In a letter he left behind, Jaara said he was acting to avenge eight Palestinians who were killed a day earlier during an Israeli military incursion in Gaza.

Yassin, who Israeli officials said had approved the Jan. 14 bombing at the Erez crossing that left four Israelis dead, also declared that his group hoped to seize Israeli soldiers to swap them for Palestinian prisoners.

He made his comments after Israel carried out a complex and controversial trade with the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah this week. The Jewish state freed more than 400 Arab prisoners and returned the bodies of 59 Lebanese fighters in exchange for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

Funerals for the three soldiers -- Sgts. Adi Avitan and Benjamin Avraham and Sgt. Maj. Omar Souad, kidnapped while on duty on the Lebanese border in October 2000 -- were held Friday.

Yassin, speaking to reporters Friday after prayers at a mosque in Gaza City, said Palestinian militants had “spared no effort” to capture Israeli soldiers. “They tried many times, but the Israeli soldier is very careful,” he said. He added that Hamas fighters would continue their efforts.

In Bethlehem about noon, Israeli troops demolished the two-story house inhabited by 11 members of Jaara’s family. Two Palestinian flags and a green Hamas banner flew atop razed water tanks. Dozens of people gathered to offer condolences and show solidarity with the family as verses from the Koran played on loudspeakers.

Israeli officials said troops encountered rock throwing, but there were no reports of casualties or shots fired.

There was debate within the Israeli government about how harshly to respond to the attack, which occurred during a visit of two U.S. diplomats trying to restart the stalled peace process. Israel decided not to order new closures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or stop Palestinian workers and business owners from entering Israel.

As four of the bombing victims were buried Friday, Israeli officials said the attack bolstered their case for building a barrier in the West Bank -- a project they are being called on to defend next month before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Palestinians say the divider’s path will result in Israel carving out large chunks of the West Bank and harm their efforts to negotiate the boundaries of a Palestinian state.

On Friday, Israel filed a statement with the court claiming that diplomacy under the U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan -- not the courtroom -- was the best method of settling the barrier question. The United Nations General Assembly has asked the tribunal to issue an advisory opinion on the case.

“The court should not and cannot deal with this issue because it is a political issue which has to be resolved, and can only be resolved, through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. We believe it is a matter of jurisdiction and propriety,” said Jonathan Peled, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.

Israel has not yet decided whether its representatives will attend the Feb. 23 hearing.

In Washington, the State Department announced Friday that the United States also had filed a formal objection with the tribunal. The U.S. opposes Israel’s plans for the barrier but argues that the international court does not have jurisdiction to rule on the matter, spokesman Richard Boucher said.

“The referral is inappropriate and may impede efforts to achieve progress toward a negotiated settlement between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.

The Palestinians believe that international pressure may be the only way to alter the planned course of the barrier, a combination of fences, trenches, concrete walls, patrol roads and electronic surveillance equipment.

In other developments, Israeli solders killed two Palestinian men as they approached the fenced Jewish settlement of Dugit. Military officials said the Palestinians were part of a larger group that appeared to be armed and might be preparing to use explosives against the settlement. They said explosives were found near the bodies after the shooting.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and another militia issued a statement saying the men were carrying out an attack on a Dugit outpost in retaliation for this week’s Gaza incursion.

*

Times staff writer Sonni Efron in Washington and special correspondents Fayed abu Shammalah in Gaza City and Samir Zedan in Bethlehem contributed to this report.