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Israel vows to reenter PA areas to hunt Palestinians
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 8/1/1997
Israel vowed on July 30 to reenter areas it handed over to the Palestinians in order to seize "activists" if Palestinian Authority's Chairman Yasser Arafat's forces failed to do job themselves.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's communications adviser David Bar Illan issued the warning a day after two suicide bombers killed 13 Israelis in the main market in occupied Jerusalem and wounded 170.
"Israel will go into the areas controlled by the Palestinian authority if that is necessary," he said.
Late on July 30 Netanyahu's Security Cabinet ordered a halt to peace talks with the Palestinians and demanded that Arafat crack down on Palestinian activists who claimed responsibility for the attack.
Israel sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip and restricted Palestinians to their home districts.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Faisal al Husseini warned Israelis of the repercussions tough actions might have.
"Every punishment against the Palestinian administration strenghthens those against the peace process," he told Israel's channel one television.
Police said two bombers detonated bombs in briefcases. Public security minister Avidgor Kahalani said there were signs the explosives might have been assembled in a bomb laboratory uncovered by Palestinian police in June near Bethlehem in the West Bank.
A Leaflet issued in the name of the Hamas group claimed responsibility. It gave Israel until 1800 GMT on Sunday to free all Palestinian prisoners. Israel and the Palestinians agreed this week to resume talks on commitments left over from interim peace accords.
That prompted optimism abroad that negotiations stalled for four months after Israel began building a Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem might be back on course.
On July 31, Israel's former Shin Bet Secret Security Chief Karmi Gillon criticized the decision to halt talks.
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