Seven Israelis arrested as accomplices in suicide bombing

JERUSALEM -- Seven Israeli Arabs have been arrested as suspected accomplices in a deadly suicide bombing, police said Monday, heightening concern of a growing alliance between members of their community and Palestinian militants.

The announcement came as Israel's army chief of staff said Palestinian militants pose an existential, "cancer-like" threat to Israel, and must be defeated at all costs to restore the deterrence Israel lost when it withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000.

The comments by Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon brought sharp criticism from dovish politicians who said he was overstepping his bounds as a military officer. One commentator called the remarks an attempt to derail an agreement that envisions Israeli withdrawals from parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian steps against terrorism.

The seven Israeli Arabs, all members of the same family, were accused of involvement in an Aug. 4 suicide bombing on a bus at the Meron junction in northern Israel. The blast killed nine passengers and pedestrians.

Police said the suspects helped store explosives in a nursery school, dressed the assailant as a tourist and then scouted a target -- a bus filled with Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Only last week, police arrested four Arab residents of Jerusalem on suspicion of carrying out several bombings, including a July 31 blast at the Hebrew University cafeteria that killed nine people, including five Americans.

The arrests increased concerns that Arabs with Israeli identity cards might use their status to carry out terror attacks.

Israeli Arabs, who number about 1 million of Israel's population of 6 million citizens have freedom of movement not afforded to residents of the West Bank, who have been barred from Israel during 23 months of fighting. Jerusalem's 200,000 Palestinians, who have Israeli ID cards but are not full citizens, also enjoy such freedom of movement.

Raanan Gissin, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman, called the latest arrests an "ominous development" and said Palestinian militants "are (trying) to recruit Israeli Arabs to participate actively in terrorist activity."

Gissin and Israel Arab leaders noted that the vast majority of Arab citizens are not engaged in terrorism. Several Israeli Arabs have been killed and many more wounded in Palestinian bomb attacks.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters raided the Jenin refugee camp and arrested Jamal Abul Haji, 44, a regional leader of Hamas, a violent Islamic group. Under cover of heavy machine-gun fire, troops stormed Abul Haji's hideout in a three-story building, Hamas activists said.

Israeli security officials said Abul Haji's assistant, 29-year-old Aslam Jarrar, was also arrested in Jenin.

Abul Haji lost a hand in fierce fighting between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops in April. Two months later, Israeli troops blew up his house.

Also Monday, an attorney for the Israeli government told the Supreme Court that expelling three relatives of Palestinian terror suspects from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip did not violate international law.

An expanded panel of nine judges, up from the customary three, began hearing arguments in the case on Monday. The Israeli military says the expulsions deter terrorism, but human rights lawyers say they violate international law and constitute collective punishment.