ISRAEL: Israel has ordered the closure of three Palestinian universities, said it would block a senior Palestinian political body from meeting in the West Bank, and slapped a travel ban on a Palestinian delegation headed for London yesterday in response to the twin suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Sunday that killed 22 people.
But, apparently tempered by US intentions in Iraq, Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, appeared to be refraining from launching a major military retaliation.
Israeli attack helicopters did hit two metal foundries on the Gaza Strip hours after the attack, wounding five people. And Mr Sharon said yesterday, after visiting some of the wounded, that "we will sit to talk peace" only after the terror had been ended.
But the measures adopted by the Prime Minister were clearly the product of an American request that he take no steps that could destabilise the region on the eve of a possible strike against Saddam Hussein. Mr Sharon also did not heed calls by hardline members of his cabinet to expel Palestinian Authority President Mr Yasser Arafat.
In the past, after suicide attacks that have exacted a high toll, Israel has often initiated more wide-ranging military action. Mr Sharon, cognisant of the US constraints but also not wanting to be perceived as passive in the face of attacks just three weeks before a national election, decided on a number of punitive measures.
The government said it would prevent the Palestinian Central Council (PCC), a key body in the PLO, from meeting in Ramallah on January 9th to discuss a draft constitution for the Palestinians, which is one of the reform measures the US has demanded of the Palestinian Authority.
"To prevent the PCC from convening means to prevent the Palestinian people's representatives from openly debating the constitution of the future Palestinian state," said cabinet Minister, Mr Saeb Erekat.
Israel's security cabinet, which met late on Sunday night, also decided to close three Palestinian universities that Israel says serve as fertile grounds for incitement to terrorism. An Israeli source said the closure orders would be issued in the coming days.
Israelis began burying their dead yesterday. As of last night, 20 of the 22 people killed had been identified. Fourteen were Israelis and six were foreigners.
The attack took place in an area where many foreign workers live, and the victims included two labourers from Romania, one from Ghana, one from Bulgaria and one from China.
Members of Mr Arafat's Fatah party yesterday tried to distance themselves from the attack, after a splinter group of the Fatah-associated Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade in the West Bank city of Nablus claimed responsibility for the bombing. Senior Fatah members were apparently trying to convince Mr Arafat to admit publicly that he no longer had full control over the militia.
A top Fatah figure and former senior security official, Mr Mohammed Dahlan, said the bombing would only strengthen the Israeli Prime Minister. "The attack only served Sharon . . . ahead of Israel's election," he said.