Israel targets Islamic Jihad, beefs up security
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel vowed to target the leadership of the radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad and beefed up security as the victims of a suicide bombing at a shopping mall were being laid to rest.
While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened a meeting of his security cabinet on Tuesday, police reinforcements were posted along the Green Line which separates Israel from the West Bank.
New checkpoints also sprang up around the entrances to major Israeli commercial centres and highways.
The army announced on Monday night that a general closure was being imposed on both the West Bank and Gaza Strip shortly due to the attack in the northern northern coastal town of Netanya, the first suicide bombing since October.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has given his go-ahead to the resumption of targeted killing operations in the Palestinian territories in response to Monday's attack which killed five Israelis.
He has also asked for legal approval to renew the army's policy of demolishing the family homes of suicide bombers.
A source close to Sharon said the decision to resume targeted killings had been rubber-stamped by the security cabinet which had also approved plans to target buildings in the Gaza Strip used to launch rocket attacks on Israel.
"We will fire artillery at buildings which are used as launchpads after the local population has received due warning," said the source.
"We hope we can convince the local population to put pressure on the terrorists to stop the attacks."
The Netanya attack was carried out by a member of Islamic Jihad, which has been behind all such bombings since the armed Palestinian factions signed up to a truce in March.
"We have decided to act in a much wider and offensive manner against the infrastructure of Islamic Jihad as we will not yield to terrorism," Mofaz told army radio.
Amos Gilad, Mofaz's top advisor, emphasised the army's determination to target the Jihad leadership. "Our actions will concentrate on Islamic Jihad, eliminating (its leadership) in order to protect human life," he said.
The radio also reported that the army was poised to launch a largescale operation in the Jenin area of the northern West Bank, considered a stronghold of Jihad and which was home to the bomber.
The army said it had arrested the father and three brothers of the bomber at their family home.
Four other Jihad activists were detained in the same operation while Palestinian security services said they had arrested three Jihad activists in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Israel said the Netanya attack highlighted the Palestinian Authority's failure to crack down on armed factions, despite the condemnation of its president, Mahmud Abbas, who called it an act of terrorism.
Abbas has been reluctant to confront Jihad and the largest Islamist movement Hamas, which is contesting January's Palestinian parliamentary elections, for fear of sparking a civil war.
The funerals of four of the victims were taking place Tuesday, while 19 other people were still in hospital.
The bombing was roundly condemned with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling on the Palestinian Authority "to fight terror and to begin to deal with the terrorist organisations that are in their midst".
With an Israeli general election due in March, commentators noted how politicians from all parties were competing to strike the hardest line and negate any suggestion they would be "soft on terror".
"This is the supreme test for the top security echelon: to withstand the temptation, to halt this wave of adrenaline, to retain sanity," said an editorial in the main Israeli daily, Yediot Aharonot.
"Because in the present situation, collective punishment will indeed add seats -- but mainly to Hamas."