Gloves Are Off Once Israel Leaves

Israel's response to Palestinian violence after a pullout from the Gaza Strip would be even harsher than its present military operations, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday.

In violent incidents, meanwhile, two Islamic militants were killed by Israeli troops in a West Bank firefight, and Hamas said a suicide bomber it had sent to attack Israel was held up at gunpoint by two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israelis were celebrating its 56th Independence Day, protected by thousands of soldiers and police, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger. The ever-present threat of Palestinian terrorism, has cast a shadow over the national mood.

"People are a little bit discouraged, maybe a lot discouraged, people are afraid," Talia Adar told Berger.

But that hasn't stopped the Independence Day tradition of dancing in the streets.

Interviewed on Israel's Channel 10 TV for Israel's independence day, Sharon defended his "unilateral disengagement" plan, including a pullout from the Gaza Strip. Members of his Likud Party vote on the plan in a referendum on Sunday.

After a pullout, Palestinians could no longer explain violence by saying that Israel was occupying their land, Sharon said, "and Israel's responses (to violence) would be much harsher."

He refused to give specifics, beyond noting that Israel is already taking stiff measures, an apparent reference to the killing of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin on March 22 and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, three weeks later.

The Gaza incident took place late Monday. Hamas claimed the "stickup men" worked for Israeli intelligence, while Palestinian security forces said the two were ordinary thieves. Rather than give up his explosives, the bomber detonated them, killing himself and the two robbers near the border fence between Gaza and Israel.

Also in Gaza, tens of thousands of Israelis streamed to Gush Katif, a bloc of Israeli settlements, to celebrate Israel's independence day and protest Sharon's pullout plan.

Independence Day turned political when Israeli Parliament speaker Rueven Rivlin kindled a symbolic holiday torch.

"I dedicate this to Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Land of our Fathers," Rivlin said in Hebrew. It was a slap at Sharon, who plans to dismantle 21 Gaza settlements, and a sign of deep division within Sharon's ruling Likud party.

In the northern West Bank, Israeli troops raided the Tulkarem refugee camp with jeeps and armored personnel carriers early Tuesday and conducted house-to-house searches. Soldiers exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen, killing two and seriously wounding a third.

Israeli military officials said one of the dead was Ashraf Nafa, 21, the Hamas leader in Tulkarem. The other was Amjad Amra, 21, from the Islamic Jihad group. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said both had links to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and planned attacks against Israelis.

The wounded man, a member of Hamas, was taken to an Israeli hospital.

In Gaza, an unusual confrontation late Monday resulted in the deaths of three — a Hamas militant and two armed men who tried to steal the militant's explosives, according to Hamas and Palestinian security officials.

Hamas said the two gunmen were collaborators with Israeli intelligence, while Palestinian security officials said they were criminals who were involved in a car theft ring that brought stolen vehicles from Israel to Gaza.

Hamas said the bomber was on his way to try to infiltrate into Israel, accompanied by another Hamas member and a guide, when they were stopped by the armed men. The robbers forced the bomber to lie on the ground and tried to steal the bomb, but the militant detonated it, killing all three. The other Hamas man and the guide escaped.

There have been cases of rival groups stealing each other's explosives, but no group claimed the two gunmen, and their families did not go to the hospital to take the bodies, indicating that the two were not militants, who are revered in Palestinian society.

A Hamas official said that whatever their intention, the two should be considered agents of Israel. "Anyone who tries to stop a fighter from doing his work is a collaborator," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hamas has been threatening punishing retaliatory attacks since Israel killed Yassin and Rantisi.

Because of the threats, security was especially tight for Israel's independence day holiday Tuesday. Police set up roadblocks on highways, checking drivers, as Israelis crowded public parks and forests for traditional holiday cookouts.

Palestinians were banned from entering Israel, as they have been since a double suicide bombing attack that killed 10 Israelis in the port of Ashdod on March 14, idling about 16,000 Palestinian workers who have entry permits.

In the TV interview, Sharon warned Likud skeptics that voting down the plan would also negate U.S. guarantees that Israel could keep parts of the West Bank and deny entry to Palestinian refugees.

However, many party members have difficulty digesting Sharon's sudden policy change — he and the Likud have been the backbone of the settlement movement for decades.

Palestinians suspect Sharon's real intention is to trade Gaza for a permanent hold over large areas of the West Bank. Also, Palestinians are unhappy with U.S. President George W. Bush, who endorsed Sharon's proposal along with backing Israeli demands to hold on to some of the West Bank and prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their original homes in Israel.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, about 1,500 backers of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demonstrated against the change in U.S. policy.

"Bush does not own a house in Jaffa or Acre for him to give away to the Israelis," one PFLP member shouted, referring to cities in Israel, and actors played out a scene in which masked gunmen kidnapped an American soldier and killed him.