Arafat: Suicide Bombings Must Stop

The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, today appealed to his people to stop attacking Israeli civilians, in a message drafted after the second suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem in two days claimed the lives of seven Israelis.

Mr Arafat said recent suicide bomb attacks "have given the Israeli government the excuse to reoccupy our land".

Israel announced a new policy yesterday of taking control of Palestinian territory in retaliation for attacks.

Israeli forces moved into Bethlehem and the neighbouring Dheisheh refugee camp and troops took up positions in Beitunia, a suburb of Ramallah.

A statement from the Israeli army said soldiers would remain there "until the mission's goals are accomplished".

Israeli troops have also taken control of Jenin and Qalqiliya, where they have set up command posts and enforced curfews.

The incursions followed a suicide bomb attack last night, when a bomber ran past police to a Jerusalem bus stop and detonated his explosives, killing himself and seven Israelis. Thrity-seven were wounded. That attack followed the killing of 19 Israelis on a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday.

In the wake of the latest attack, Israeli helicopters and warplanes pounded Palestinian buildings in the Gaza Strip, wounding 13 people.

In Washington, the US president, George Bush, postponed a long-awaited speech about Middle East peace initiatives.

The attack yesterday took place at a busy intersection in northern Jerusalem. The blast wrecked a bus stop and left the road littered with body parts and personal belongings.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Mr Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the text of a speech that he was expected to deliver later today, Mr Arafat expressed his "full and comprehensive condemnation for all kinds of operations that target Israeli civilians".

He said this "does not have anything to do with our legal right of resisting the Israeli occupation and our right to defend our existence and holy places".

Mr Arafat said: "I have to be honest with you - these operations must be totally stopped." The alternative, he said, was the "full Israeli occupation of our lands".

In other developments, two Israeli soldiers were killed and four wounded yesterday when a gun battle erupted in Qalqiliya after Israeli soldiers entered a house looking for a Hamas suspect. Hamas had claimed responsibility for the Tuesday bus bombing.

An armed Palestinian tried to break into a high school in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron, early today, the military said. Soldiers shot and killed the attacker.