Jordan's King Puts Off Bush Meet

The king of Jordan, one of America's closest allies in the Middle East, postponed a White House meeting with President Bush this week, questioning the U.S. commitment to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The summit postponement is an unmistakable signal by King Abdullah II of opposition to the Israeli settlement plan that President Bush endorsed last week, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller. A number of Arab leaders have denounced the Israeli plan and Mr. Bush's embrace of it.

The White House is trying to play down the postponement. A spokesman stressed that the summit has been rescheduled for the first week in May.

Jordan is considered a key moderate ally of the United States and is one of only two of Israel's Arab neighbors to have a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, Palestinians fired a barrage of homemade rockets and mortar shells at Gaza Strip settlements and towns inside Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Israel said Tuesday.

Over two days, 15 Qassam rockets hit Israeli targets, wounding one Israeli and damaging at least five structures, the army said. It was one of the most intense rocket barrages in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

In response, Israeli troops were beefed up in the northern Gaza Strip, possibly with an eye toward moving against the rocket and mortar crews operating in that area, reported the Jerusalem Post.

On Tuesday morning, two rockets hit the northern Gaza settlement of Nissanit, one landed in the Erez industrial zone in northern Gaza and three in the nearby Israeli communities of Sderot and Kibbutz Niram, the army said.

Militants also fired two missiles at the settlement of Neve Dekalim in the southern Gaza Strip, damaging a house, the army said.

Later Tuesday, Israeli tanks and a bulldozer cleared some land near Nissanit. Several dozen Palestinian youths threw stones and troops responded with machine-gun fire, Palestinian security sources said.

Motasem Nasser, 17, from the town of Beit Hanoun, was killed. The army said he was climbing on a vehicle when troops shot him.

The rocket attacks began soon after Israel killed Rantisi and two of his bodyguards in a missile strike on his car Saturday night, three weeks after it killed the militant groups' spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Following Rantisi's killing, Hamas vowed "100 unique reprisals."

Israel said the killings were part of its campaign to weaken Hamas in advance of a proposed pullout from the Gaza Strip and some West Bank settlements in 2005.

"We have to fight the massive fight against terror and especially Hamas," said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who toured army bases in Gaza on Tuesday.

A top Israeli general says Israel has dealt a serious blow to Hamas, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.

Hamas is in disarray, after the army killed its two top leaders in less than a month, intelligence chief Aharon Ze'evi Farkash told the parliament. He said Hamas has appealed to Iran and Hezbollah for help.

In the West Bank, the Israeli military raided the town of Silwad, where overall Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was born. About 70 people were arrested in Silwad during house-to-house searches, Palestinian security sources said.

Mashaal lives in Damascus, Syria. Israeli officials have said he could be a target as well.

The soldiers searched the house of Palestinian Cabinet minister Qadoura Fares in Silwad and took his picture, Fares said. "It looks like they're looking for a wanted guy from Hamas," Fares said. "I told them who I was, but they still searched my house."

In an interview with Army Radio on Tuesday, Mofaz defended the withdrawal plan, which Sharon's Likud party must accept in a May 2 referendum before it is implemented. Mofaz is leading the government's efforts to persuade a majority of the hard-line party's 200,000 members to support the plan.

"This move is good for the state of Israel," he said.

Evacuating the settlements named in the plan will strengthen other important Israeli settlements in the West Bank, he said, and getting out of Gaza will make Israel more secure. The army would still surround the coastal strip and control all border crossings and airspace, he said.

"(We) will be able to fight terrorism in every manner, and in my opinion with much greater flexibility and less friction," Mofaz said.

Giving Palestinians control of some territory could also give rise to a more moderate Palestinian leadership and eventually lead to renewed peace talks, Mofaz said.

Farkash also endorsed Israel's plan for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, saying it will reduce terrorism. But he said Israel's unilateral steps have left Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia feeling impotent, and he will probably resign.

The withdrawal plan has gained the support of several key Likud figures in recent days, including Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu announced he would back the proposal after President Bush said last week that Israel would not have to dismantle all settlements or absorb Palestinian refugees in a final peace deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also promised his Cabinet the evacuations would not begin until Israel completed a separation barrier around the West Bank.

Palestinians view the barrier, which dips into the West Bank in places, as a grab for territory they want for a future state. They also fear Sharon may be trying to give up Gaza and some West Bank settlements in order to strengthen Israel's hold on the rest of the West Bank.

Mofaz said Tuesday the barrier would be finished by next year and would surround the settlements of Maaleh Adumim and Ariel, which would force the barrier's route deep into the West Bank.

Israel would not abandon the settlements on the other side of the barrier, Mofaz said, but would surround them with individual security fences.