U.S. pressures Israel not to respond to bomb attack

WASHINGTON — The United States is imposing what officials term as massive pressure to prevent an Israeli retaliatory strikes against the Palestinian Authority in wake of a car bombing in which two Israelis were killed and more than 60 were injured.

Senior Clinton administration officials were in contact with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak overnight Thursday and warned him against attacking PA and other Palestinian installations. They rejected Barak's assertion that the bombing in the Israeli city of Hadera was the work of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad supported by the PA.

Officials said the White House and State Department also demanded that Israel end economic sanctions on the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They said such sanctions only increase the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Instead, the administration has appealed to Barak to agree to a new U.S. effort to end the violence and return to peace negotiations. Officials said the administration has warned Barak that continued Israeli retaliation could plunge the Middle East into war.

The White House has rejected an Israeli demand that an international commission of enquiry suspend its work until the Arab-Israeli violence ends in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Israel is not the only victim of the violence. Ms. Albright said Palestinians have also been killed in clashes with Israeli troops and appeared to cast equal blame on the two sides. The secretary rejected an Israeli assertion that four Palestinians killed in Gaza hours before Wednesday evening's bombing in Hadera were Fatah guerrillas.

"In this regard, we will be talking to Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat about creating a mechanism which will allow Israelis and Palestinians to carry out these commitments," she said. "For the Israelis this means withdrawing forces to their positions prior to the onset of the crisis, ending economic restrictions against Palestinians and restraining their use of force."

Ms. Albright also spoke to Arafat and the latter was quoted as having told the U.S. secretary that he had nothing to do with the Hadera bombing and that he wants to return to the peace talks. The secretary later urged Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami to test Arafat's sincerity in ending the violence.

The Albright effort appeared to have succeeded. Officials both in Washington and Jerusalem said Israel told Ms. Albright that it would not launch an imminent attack.

"It is our obligation to allow the Americans to examine this," Ben-Ami said on Thursday. "Ms. Albright has launched an initiative to implement Sharm e-Sheik. We will talk again and see what kind of mechanism she is demanding. It is suitable to give this a chance."

At the same time, the United Nations Security Council met in emergency session as the Palestinians reiterated their call for a 2,000-member international monitoring force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A vote on the issue is expected next week as a UN panel condemned what it termed were "grave violations of international humanitarian law" by Israel.

"Let us be frank," Nasser Quidwa, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, said. "The parties, after all that has happened, cannot put an end to this violence alone."

Israel opposes the effort and blamed the Palestinians for the clashes. One Palestinian was killed in a shootout during a clash on Thursday that followed an explosion of a bomb near an army patrol in the northern Gaza Strip. Later, another bomb exploded.

In Rafiah, six Palestinians were reported injured in a clash with Israeli forces. The military said Palestinians fired a mortar at a liasion office in Khan Yunis and at least one Israeli was injured. It was the second time this week that Palestinians were said to have used mortars against Israeli troops.

"It looks like we are talking about a mortar that exploded in the offices," Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitri said. "There are two Israeli soldiers injured and there appears to be Palestinian injuries as well."

Israeli officials said they are bracing for more Palestinian attacks. They said the Lebanese Hizbullah is preparing for an onslaught along the northern border.