Israel Acts to Seize Palestinian Land After 19 Die in Blast
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, convened his security advisers to plan a response, and his office issued its statement after 2 a.m. "Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing P.A. territory," the statement read. "These areas will be held by Israel as long as terror continues. Additional acts of terror will lead to the taking of additional areas. As a result of yesterday's murderous act of terror in Jerusalem, Israel will shortly take P.A. territory as outlined above."

The statement said Israel would also take other military actions "against the Palestinian Authority and the murderous organizations."

Under the Oslo Accords, negotiated almost 10 years ago but never fully carried out, the Palestinian Authority has limited power to govern in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the territory Israel occupied in the 1967 war. In the West Bank, the Authority has full security and civil control over a series of islands, like Ramallah, surrounded by areas effectively controlled by Israel.

Since a major Israeli ground offensive into the West Bank earlier this spring, Israeli forces have been operating freely in the areas supposedly under Palestinian control, because, Israel says, the Palestinian Authority has failed to crack down on terrorism. Though troops have moved in and out, they have also seized some land for longer periods of time.

The new statement suggested that Israel would begin taking and holding larger swaths of territory.

Mr. Sharon opposed the Oslo accords; Palestinian officials have accused him of seeking to destroy the agreement and with it the possibility of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, which Oslo envisioned. The new statement comes as President Bush weighs whether to propose creating a provisional Palestinian state in part of that territory.

The Islamic group Hamas, an opponent of any peace with Israel, claimed responsibility for the bombing, attributing it to Muhammad al-Ghoul, 22, from the Faraa refugee camp near Nablus. He was described as a master's student in Islam at An Najah National University in Nablus.

As rightist Israelis renewed their calls to oust Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, Hamas vowed to continue what it called "the war of buses."

"We tell the Zionists to prepare your coffins, dig your graves, because your dead will be in the hundreds," the group said in a statement.

Officials of Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing, but said Israeli raids on Mr. Arafat's security forces had rendered him powerless to stop such attacks. "We don't have a prison," said Nabil Aburdeineh, a senior aide to Mr. Arafat. "If we arrest someone, where should we put him?"

Mr. Aburdeineh said Hamas and the Israeli government were both intent on destroying the Palestinian Authority.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/19/international/19MIDE.html