Israel strikes back after suicide attack kills 19

Tel Aviv - Israel launched helicopter missile strikes in Gaza on Sunday after a Palestinian woman suicide bomber killed 19 people, including four children, in a crowded beach restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

The bombing on Saturday at the Maxim restaurant, frequented by Jews and Arabs, just before the solemn Jewish Yom Kippur fast day triggered fresh calls in Israel to exile Yasser Arafat and further battered a stalled U.S.-backed peace "road map."

An Israeli government source said no decision on Arafat was imminent. The United States, Israel's main ally, opposes banishing the Palestinian president from the Palestinian territories, saying such a move would win him world sympathy.

Israel's missile strikes damaged a Palestinian militant's home in Gaza City and struck an electricity generator in el-Bureij refugee camp. No one was badly hurt. The army said helicopters attacked two weapons depots of the Hamas group.

The dead in the Haifa bombing included five members of one family -- a grandmother, her son, daughter-in-law and their two children, aged four and 14 months. A retired submarine commander, his wife and their son and grandchild were among others killed.

Several Israeli Arabs were also among the dead and police said about 50 people were wounded.

The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the restaurant attack and named the bomber as Hanadi Tayseer Jaradat, 29, from the West Bank city of Jenin.

It said she was avenging the killing of her brother and cousin, Islamic Jihad members, by Israel in a three-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

BOMBER'S HOME BLOWN UP

The Israeli army blew up her family home, where seven relatives lived, early on Sunday, witnesses said.

The suicide attack in Haifa was the first since twin bombings killed 15 people on September 9 and the first since Israel's cabinet decided in principle on September 11 to "remove" Arafat. It has accused him of fomenting violence, an allegation he denies.

The bomber's severed head with a long mane of dark hair lay on the floor in the center of the restaurant, surrounded by other body parts and bloody clothes. A black and white checkered baby carriage stood amid the wreckage.

"Suddenly we heard a tremendous explosion. We saw smoke pour out of the restaurant and the windows shattered," witness Navon Hai said of the lunchtime blast.

"There wasn't much we could do. Families were dead around the tables, there were children without limbs."

The attack provoked an international outcry and some Israeli ministers demanded Arafat's removal. Palestinian leaders urged the world to stop any assault to oust the president.

Arafat condemned the attack and said it would give Israel a pretext to obstruct international peace efforts.

Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Qurie, whose government is obliged to rein in militants under the road map, urged Palestinians to "fully halt these actions that target civilians." Israel said that was "too little and too late."

About 30 Arafat supporters, including some foreigners, went to his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah to act as "human shields," witnesses said.

President Bush said the suicide bombing was despicable. He urged Palestinians to "fight terror, which remains the foremost obstacle to achieving the vision of two states living side by side in peace and security." -- Reuters

Brudirect.com News