Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today said Israel might step up its military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip following an attempted Palestinian suicide bombing in Haifa.
"Our operations are yielding impressive results but we have not finished our action and because of what is happening we might have to step up our activities," Mr Sharon told Israeli public radio.
Earlier today a Palestinian suicide bomber tried to blow himself up at a bus station in the northern Israeli town of Haifa, injuring several people.
The militant was seriously wounded in the botched attack and was quickly shot dead by two policemen who feared he was about to activate a second bomb.
Mr Sharon was speaking during a weekly cabinet meeting that was held at the West Bank headquarters of the Israeli armed forces, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El and the Palestinian town of Ramallah.
Israeli cabinet ministers were driven to the meeting in an armoured bus, the radio said.
Mr Sharon has sent in his warplanes, helicopter gunships and tanks to level Palestinian police stations across the territories to pile pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to arrest and sentence Islamic extremists behind a wave of suicide bombings on Israeli cities in the past week.
Two Palestinians were killed and more than 120 injured in the air strikes.
AFP