Arafat orders arrests of suspected militants

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said Israel would continue expanding Jewish settlements - a move sure to anger the Palestinians and irritate the United States, which had asked Israel for a temporary halt in settlement building.

Speaking last night in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Netanyahu said construction would begin soon on 300 new apartments there.

AP PHOTO A blindfolded Palestinian sits next to an Israeli army jeep as he is guarded by a soldier outside the West Bank yesterday.

"We are building both in Efrat and in Judea and Samaria," he said, using the biblical name for the West Bank, and we are going to build more, both in Efrat and around it ... The land of Israel is being built in front of our eyes, and that's a good thing."

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had asked for a "time-out" in Israeli settlement building in order to help get the peace process back on track. Netanyahu's government rejected that request, saying there could be no movement in the peace process until Palestinians did more to fight terrorism.

None of the militants detained by the Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday were on Israel's wanted list. Israel's Channel Two television, quoting unnamed security sources, said there were "specific warnings" of another bomb attack in the near future.

The arrests came a day after Israel identified four suicide bombers from two recent attacks in Jerusalem as Hamas activists from the village of Assira, near Nablus. The July 30 and Sept. 4 attacks killed 25 people, including five bombers.

"After revealing the identities of the suicide bombers, many in the world - including the U.S.A., and I allow myself to say even the Palestinian Authority - understand the inescapable need to fight against terrorism," Netanyahu said.

The Israeli announcement deeply embarrassed Arafat. The four had walked out of a loosely guarded Palestinian jail in Nablus last year, and their names were on a list of 88 Islamic militants Israel had given the Palestinian Authority with the demand they be arrested.

The Palestinians have countered that Assira and other West Bank villages, though administered by them, are under full Israeli security control. The Palestinians have full control over only seven West Bank cities.

Arafat yesterday dismissed Israel accusations that he was partly to blame for the July 30 and Sept. 4 bombings in Jerusalem because he hadn't done enough to crack down on militants.

"It is not our responsibility," Arafat told reporters. "I can do 100 percent effort, but no one in the world can give 100 percent results."

Israel handed the Palestinians an updated list of Hamas activists on Tuesday evening with a renewed demand they be arrested to prevent more attacks.

Israel said yesterday that it believed the ringleaders of the Assira squad were hiding in Palestinian cities. A senior Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four Assira men wanted by Israel were believed to be hiding in Nablus.

The importance of identifying the suicide bombers was not in the identifications themselves, but in the lead they provide toward uncovering the Hamas infrastructure, Israel's national police chief Assaf Hefetz said.

Hefetz said he believed the Palestinian Authority could prevent future attacks by arresting suspects on the wanted list and preventing arms and explosives from crossing its borders.

The suspected Islamic militants arrested yesterday included four alleged members of Hamas, a complex organization made up of both armed militants and those operating a large social service network in Palestinian-controlled areas.

Israeli security forces also ordered wardens at the Nablus jail to tighten security. In the past, cell doors were often left open, inmates drank coffee with their wardens and they were permitted to go on furloughs into town.

Among those arrested were Issa Abul Eez, 43, owner of the Hamas-affiliated private TV station Afeq, and three other senior figures, Yousef Sourakji, 37; Salah Derwazi, 39; and Hamzi Jaber, 45. The four were among 400 Islamic militants deported by Israel in 1992 to Lebanon for a year in exile.

Asked about how the four suicide bombers were allowed to walk out of prison, Arafat said: "They escaped. What can I do?"

Israel has not identified the fifth bomber.

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