JERUSALEM Ñ For the first time in the nearly ten-month-old war, Palestinian gunners have fired mortar shells toward Jerusalem.

The gunners fired two mortars on Tuesday toward the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. One mortar landed in Gilo and the other shell struck an area next to the tunnel that connects Jerusalem to the West Bank. The mortars were identified as 60 mm shells.

Israeli military sources said the Palestinian mortar fire was an escalation of the war with the Palestinians. They said Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer has ordered a mobilization of forces for deployment around the West Bank. But Ben-Eliezer did not order an attack on PA facilities.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his top ministers to discuss the latest Palestinian attacks, which included a suicide bombing at an Israeli train station in which two Israelis were killed. The meeting was described as stormy as at least two of the ministers criticized what they termed was the government's policy of restraint.

"When we know of a place where they are planning an attack, we respond," Israeli Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh said.

During the Cabinet meeting, Palestinian gunners continued their mortar fire -- this time toward the Jewish settlement of Netsarim in the Gaza Strip. Nobody was injured.

So far, officials said, the government has focused its efforts in the diplomatic rather than in the military sphere. Sharon and Ben-Eliezer spoke on late Tuesday with U.S. President George Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell and complained that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has refused to stop Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and installations.

Still, Israeli officials said, the Cabinet does not plan to order a military invasion of the West Bank.

"We haven't reached a decision like this," Cabinet spokesman Gideon Saar said. "All of our decisions are meant to increase security."

Islamic opposition groups in Bethlehem claimed responsibility for the mortar attack. They said this was in retaliation for an Israeli helicopter strike on Tuesday in which four Hamas members were killed.

Israeli sources said Israeli intelligence agencies had received an alert that the targeted Hamas agents were planning to place a car bomb in Jerusalem. They said the PA had ignored Israeli demands to arrest the Hamas fugitives.

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