US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday he still hoped to meet Palestinian leaders next week despite a bomb attack on an Israeli university that drew swift military retaliation from Israel.
Israel responded to the deadly university bombing by sending troops into a militant Palestinian stronghold in the West Bank city of Nablus, demolishing houses of the families of Palestinian suicide attackers.
Powell condemned the Palestinian attacks and mourned the five Americans and two Israelis who died in the Wednesday blast at a cafeteria of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, but said efforts to end 22 months of bloodshed must continue.
"We can't walk away from it. We must continue to try to find a path forward," Powell told a news conference in Manila near the end of an eight-nation Asia tour. He made clear that no dates or participants for any peace effort had been set.
US President George W. Bush had said he was "just as angry as Israel is" after the university bombing, but said he still thought peace was possible.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers went door-to-door in Nablus' Old City for the second day yesterday, taking over houses in a city the Israeli government described as "the main factory of suicide bombings."
Witnesses said several people were arrested yesterday in addition to the 50 rounded up on Friday.
Armed with small hammers and metal bars, Israeli soldiers wound through the Casbah's narrow alleys, which were surrounded by dozens of Israeli tanks and military vehicles.
The army clashed with Palestinians in several places in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Friday and overall five Palestinians were killed, including an elderly woman. Seven houses and buildings were destroyed.
Also, the military said it planned to expel two relatives of suspected Palestinian militants from their homes in the West Bank to the Gaza Strip -- a transfer Israel hopes will deter potential attackers.
"There's been a train of Palestinian terrorism that's been hitting Israel over the past week to 10 days, and what we've been able to discern is that its hub is in Nablus," said Israeli government spokesman Dore Gold. Nablus has replaced nearby Jenin "as the main factory of suicide bombings against Israel."
Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank with about 200,000 people, has been under an Israeli military curfew for most of the past six weeks, along with other Palestinian population centers.
Nablus residents defied the curfew from last Sunday to Wednesday, and life regained a semblance of normalcy as residents returned to the streets and the Israeli forces remained parked in their armored vehicles on the outskirts of the city.
However, the military reinforced the curfew Thursday, and a convoy of more than 100 tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into Nablus at around 2am Friday.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called the Israeli operation "a new massacre again, that has started."
"I need an answer from the whole United Nations: is this acceptable?" he said at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
In response to the Nablus incursion, Arafat said: "I am asking for quick international intervention from the United Nations. If they are not able to send forces, then send observers."
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