Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived home early yesterday, cutting short a trip to India, to consider how to respond to two Palestinian suicide bombings, and an official said options included invading Gaza or expelling Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Sharon planned to convene senior Cabinet ministers and security commanders for urgent talks, after a pair of bombers killed 15 Israelis in attacks in central Israel and Jerusalem just six hours apart on Tuesday.
The violence underscored the collapse of US-brokered peace efforts and came amid political uncertainty after the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, whose successor, Ahmed Qureia, was expected to name his Cabinet yesterday.
An official on Sharon's plane, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, blamed Arafat for the bombings. "Arafat is responsible because of his strategy to try to have a political process alongside terror," the official said.
Hard-liners in Sharon's Cabinet have long clamored for expulsion of Arafat. Up to now Sharon has rebuffed the deportation calls, fearing international condemnation.
The official stopped short of detailing what Israel's response would be, saying the security Cabinet would have to decide.
The body, made up of senior ministers, was to convene yesterday after Sharon meets with military commanders and the defense minister, the official said. Another official said expulsion of Arafat or invading Gaza were on the agenda.
Witnesses reported Israeli troop movements in Ramallah. Israel is in control of the West Bank Palestinian town, trapping Arafat in his office building for more than a year.
Israeli forces blew up two houses early yesterday -- one in Ramallah, south of Arafat's compound, and the other in the suburb of Beitunia. Both blasts could be heard at the compound, where tension was high but no unusual activity was seen.
In one of the most strident comments yet from the mainstream Israeli press, the Jerusalem Post called for killing Arafat.
"We must kill as many of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders as possible, as quickly possible, while minimizing collateral damage, but not letting that damage stop us," the English-language daily wrote in an editorial yesterday. "And we must kill Yasser Arafat, because the world leaves us no alternative."
Former prime minister Shimon Peres, head of the moderate opposition Labor Party, warned that expelling Arafat would be a "historic mistake" that would "deepen the hostilities between the Palestinians and ourselves." He told CNN, "Arafat outside [his Ramallah office] will be more effective and more negative than he is today."
The Hamas military wing claimed responsibility for the Tuesday suicide bombings, saying in a statement that the attacks "came as the beginning of our retaliation for the enemy's crimes against our people."
A spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, loosely linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, said his group also was behind one of the bombings outside an army base near Tel Aviv. That raised fears that the group had lost contact with a bomber who had been dispatched to Israel and that he was still roaming around ready to strike.
The explosion at the bus stop killed eight soldiers, and the second blast five hours later killed a security guard and six patrons at a popular Jerusalem coffee house. Dozens of bystanders were wounded.
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