Israel threatens more attacks

A spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed yesterday that Israel would continue to attack Palestinian militants despite condemnation of the tactic by Wash-ington amid a widening cycle of violence.

"If they (Palestinian authorities) fail to take action, then we will (take action)," the spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said shortly after an Israeli helicopter gunship killed a top Hamas militant in the Gaza Strip, a strike that followed a suicide bombing that killed at least 16 people in Occupied Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday he was shocked by an Israeli attack on a Palestinian militant leader the day before and urged Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to cooperate with his Palestinian counterpart to end violence, just hours before a suicide bomber in Occupied Jerusalem killed at least 15 people.

Speaking to reporters after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Mubarak said "violence and counter-violence" will torpedo the U.S.-backed peace plan known as the road map.

The three-stage plan envisions a Palestinian state by 2005 and an end to hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians that have been raging for almost three years.

On Tuesday, an Israeli missile strike on Gaza City wounded Hamas spokesman and policy-maker Abdel Aziz Rantissi and killed two other people.

Hamas threatened revenge and yesterday, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in Occupied Jerusalem, killing at least 15 people and wounding 70.

Rantissi stopped short of claiming direct responsibility for the Occupied Jerusalem bombing, but said that "the Zionists will pay an expensive price for all of their crimes."

Last week, Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in recent years, broke off ceasefire talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and, along with two other militias, shot and killed five Israeli soldiers over the weekend.

The Israeli strike "was very untimely ... it came as a shock," Mubarak said.

"If there is a will for peace to ensure the safety of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people, then the Israeli prime minister should cooperate with the Palestinian prime minister to reach this aim."

Mubarak said he sent his chief of intelligence Omar Suleiman to the Palestinian territories Wednesday to try to mediate an end to the violence.

Stephen Cohen, a national scholar with the U.S.-based Israel Policy Forum who was part of a Jewish American delegation that met with Mubarak yesterday, noted U.S. President George W. Bush also had criticised Israel for the attempt on Rantissi.

Bush said such moves don't promote Israel's security and may "make it more difficult for the Palestinian leadership to fight off terrorist attacks."

"The president had a just right in the sharp way he talked about violence," Cohen said. "I think this was in the right direction and I would encourage that right direction be maintained."

Tuesday night, foreign ministers and top officials from eight Arab states accused Israel of trying to sabotage the road map. Yesterday, the state-run Syrian paper Tishrin, which gives the official line, said Israel's assassination attempt against Rantissi "has undermined confidence in the possibility of achieving a just and comprehensive peace in the region."

Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah also offered condemnation yesterday.

In Beirut, Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said the assassination attempt would not help the peace process.

"These operations will not facilitate or bring peace closer," Obeid told reporters. Early yesterday, Ahmed Jibril, secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, told AP that the assassination attempt "would never intimidate our Palestinian people" and said the coming days "would prove that there is no way to deal with this (Israeli) enemy but through jihad (struggle)."

Berlusconi arrived in the Middle East Monday for talks with Israeli and Arab leaders. He did not request a meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, whom the United States has been encouraging its allies to isolate, prompting Abbas to turn down an encounter with him.

Israel says that by meeting Arafat world leaders are undermining Abbas' authority. Sharon has said he will not meet with world leaders who also meet with Arafat, whom he accuses of fomenting attacks against Israel.