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Deadly attack at university puts region further on edge

A new upsurge of killing threatened the Middle East yesterday after two Jerusalem bombings in as many days, with Israel mulling new tactics and the radical Hamas group threatening to kill 100 Israelis for every one of its leaders slain.

As the region lurched deeper into bloodshed, the body of an Israeli man who had been shot in the head was found near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, on the boundary with Israel.

Israel implemented a new policy of trying to deter suicide bombers by destroying the house of a teenage kamikaze who injured seven Israelis on Tuesday when he blew himself up in a downtown Jerusalem snackbar.

Israeli officials said after a security Cabinet meeting Wednesday they were formulating new ways of combatting the bombers after the attack, the first in the disputed city since June 19, when Israeli forces reoccupied the West Bank to stamp out militants.

They examined house demolitions and the banishment of relatives of suicide bombers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, although legal advisers said the measures must remain strictly within the limits of international law.

Hardline groups such as Hamas, which killed seven people -- including four from the US and a man with dual US-French citizenship -- in a bomb attack at Jerusalem's Hebrew University on Wednesday -- have threatened to kill Israeli leaders' families if the expulsions go ahead.

Hamas stepped up its menacing speeches yesterday when it threatened to kill 100 Israelis for every one of its leaders slain by Israel, after a July 22 air strike on Gaza that killed the head of its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

Ezzedine al-Qassam, whose military chief Salah Shehade died along with 14 others, nine of them children, said: "In response to the Israeli assassination of any leader from our movement ... we will kill 100 Zionists at least."

The group said the university blast, which unusually was caused by a planted bomb and not a suicide attack, was "one of a series" of reprisals for the raid that killed Shehade.

"We ask our military groups to continue military operations and martyr operations," it said, in a reference to Hamas' attacks on Israeli targets and suicide bombings.

It blamed Wednesday's blast on the Israeli occupation of east Jerusalem and vowed to "teach [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and [Defense Minister Binyamin] Ben Eliezer a lesson after they came to assassinate our leader."

The group also criticized US President George W. Bush, whom they called the "head criminal," for his support of Israel and said Hamas would pursue its resistance.

"We say to America, we are not afraid."

Around 5,000 Hamas supporters rallied Wednesday night in Gaza City, calling for more attacks and warning Israelis not to leave their homes.

Israeli intelligence reports this week warned of around 60 suicide bombings in the works, putting the country on full alert for a new round of killing.

And in an industrial zone near Tulkarem, the body of an Israeli man who had been tied up and shot in the head was found in an area under Israeli control.

It was not known if the man was a Jewish settler of if he was from another part of the country.

Tensions skyrocketed after the internationally-condemned Israeli air raid on Gaza City, which ended a period of relative calm and, according to Palestinians, smashed a tentative ceasefire proposal being worked out between the hardline factions.

Israel officials have dismissed talks of an inter-factional ceasefire, saying the attacks would have continued no matter what.
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