Israeli Troops Block Pullout Foes

Seals Off Gaza Strip Settlements That Will Be Evacuated

(AP)  Later Wednesday, police raided the offices of the National Home, an anti-pullout group, arresting an 18-year-old woman suspected of coordinating the settlers' road-blocking campaign, said police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby.

Some settlers also criticized the government for ordering the closure a day after the deadly suicide bombing in Netanya shook a 5-month-old truce between Israel and the Palestinians.

In response to the bombing, Sharon ordered security forces to "hit the leadership of Islamic Jihad. We will not stop until they stop the terrorist murders," he said.

Early Wednesday, Israeli troops took control of the West Bank town of Tulkarem, declaring a curfew and conducting house-to-house searches in pursuit of the bombing's masterminds.

Israel handed Tulkarem to Palestinian control four months ago as part of a gradual Israeli withdrawal from West Bank cities. Israeli Cabinet ministers said Wednesday the process had been frozen.

The army's operation began early Wednesday when undercover troops stormed a Palestinian checkpoint, Palestinian security officials said. The police opened fire when they did not recognize the armed men dressed in civilian clothes as Israeli soldiers.

The soldiers returned fire, killing one police officers and critically wounding a second. Minutes later, a large Israeli force flooded Tulkarem and an adjacent refugee camp.

"The specific goal of this operation is to destroy the Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure in Tulkarem and its surroundings," Brig. Gen. Yair Golan, a West Bank military commander, told Israel's Army Radio.

International pressure also grew on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to take action against Islamic Jihad. Abbas, who harshly condemned the bombing, has preferred to try to co-opt the militant groups, fearing a crackdown would spark a civil war.

In condemning the attack, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on the Palestinian Authority to punish those responsible. "Now we must see actions that send a message that terror will not be tolerated," she said in a statement.

The bomber, 18-year-old Sami Abu Khalil, was from the village of Atil near Tulkarem. Atil is under full Israeli control, and Israeli officials acknowledged a failure by intelligence to detect the plot.