Wednesday March 28 3:53 PM ET
Israel Strikes at Palestinians After Suicide Bomb

By Deborah Camiel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel launched air strikes on the bases of elite Palestinian forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday in response to the latest in a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings which killed two Israeli teenagers.

Witnesses said helicopter gunships fired missiles on Gaza and the West Bank city of Ramallah, setting ablaze buildings and cars, knocking out electricity and killing at least two Palestinians in Ramallah and wounding dozens.

Palestinians denounced the strikes as ``state terrorism.'' Israel said they were punishment for the wave of bomb attacks and vowed to hit militants whenever necessary.

``We shall decide upon the time, place and certainly the means by which we will strike at terrorists and those responsible for terrorism,'' army spokesman Ron Kitry said.

The army said it had hit the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Force-17 security force, which it says has been behind a number of bomb attacks during six months of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

In Gaza, an arsenal, a training camp and other installations used by Force-17 were hit, as well as a Palestinian Authority armored vehicle, it said.

A Palestinian Red Crescent official said the two dead were a member of Force-17 and a Palestinian civilian. Several other people were wounded.

Aides to Arafat promptly denounced the air strikes.

``This is a dangerous escalation and it destroys the last chances of peace,'' Nabil Abu Rdainah, who was with Arafat in the Jordanian capital Amman, told Reuters. ``We hold the Israeli government fully responsibly for this deterioration.''

Another senior aide, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, said: ``This is an unprecedented aggression on the national (Palestinian) Authority which is without justification.''

He said it showed the ``true intentions'' of the government of new Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who convened his security cabinet shortly before the attacks started and had been under fierce pressure to retaliate for a spate of bomb attacks.

Suicide Bombing

In the latest attack, a suicide bomber killed himself and two Israeli teenagers at a bus stop in central Israel near the border with the West Bank early on Wednesday.

Witnesses said the victims' bodies were blown apart, and sappers defused two other bombs as Palestinian militant groups claimed responsibility for the attack northeast of Tel Aviv and vowed to carry out more bombings.

``I saw my friends blown apart. One of them was without hands,'' said Rafael Zomer, 15, who was also waiting for an armored bus to take the youngsters to school at a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. He suffered minor injuries.

In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians said an old woman died after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli troops and that a child aged about 12 was killed by an Israeli booby trap.

The Israeli army denied knowledge of the first case and flatly denied blame for the second.

Before the latest violence, Arab leaders called at a summit in Jordan for an international force to protect Palestinians in revolt against Israeli occupation.

They also demanded that Israeli ``war criminals'' be put on trial and approved a proposal to send $240 million in emergency aid to the Palestinian Authority over the next six months.

In a blow to the Palestinian cause, the United States used its veto on Tuesday to kill a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have backed the sending of an unarmed international observer force to the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamas Claims Responsibility

After Wednesday's suicide bombing, at Newe Yamin about 15 miles northeast of Tel Aviv, a telephone caller who said he was from the military wing of Hamas said the Islamic group had carried out the attack.

``There are still seven martyrs ready to strike and we have more,'' the caller said.

The caller also claimed responsibility on behalf of Hamas for a suicide bombing which killed the bomber and injured at least 30 people in Jerusalem on Tuesday, and for a bomb which police defused in the coastal city of Netanya on Wednesday.

Another bomb was defused on Wednesday in a market in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva.

At least 356 Palestinians, 69 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since violence erupted in late September after peace talks became deadlocked.

The Palestinian public security chief said a Palestinian child was killed and three were hurt when they picked up booby-trapped boxing gloves which he said were planted by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. All were aged about 12.

The army said it completely denied the charge and said Palestinians had unleashed a barrage of gunfire and grenades at its troops in the area. It said it replied with gunfire.

A Palestinian woman aged 70 died after inhaling tear gas fired by troops into her home in the West Bank village of Jaba, a Palestinian hospital official said. The army said it had used ''riot dispersal'' methods but knew nothing of the woman's death.

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