Sharon 'to bolster' Hebron settlers

Time says Sharon to create new "facts on the ground."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel must respond to Friday's ambush in Hebron by creating "new facts" on the ground and bolstering Jewish settlements in the West Bank city.

He was speaking during a tour of Hebron ahead of a cabinet meeting called to discuss how to respond to the attack, which claimed 12 Israeli lives and left three Palestinian attackers dead.

Mr Sharon said Israel must "exploit the opportunity to create new facts in the field and create contiguity" between Jewish enclaves in Hebron and the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement, according to a report on Israel radio.

Jewish settlers are reported to have already set up a tented settlement at the scene of the ambush, and have called on the army to let them stay after a seven-day mourning period.

Israeli troops have poured back into Palestinian-administered Hebron - which makes up 80% of the city - as well as arresting relatives of the attackers and dozens of suspected members of Islamic Jihad, which issued a claim of responsibility.

Troops have taken control of strategic buildings, and destroyed several other homes and an olive grove in which the gunmen are said to have hidden.

The heavy casualties on Friday have triggered questions in Israel about the army's handling of the situation.

An army colonel was among the 12 dead, the highest-ranking officer to die since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule began in September 2000.

The attack began when shots were fired at a column of settlers and their border police guards as they walked from Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs to Kiryat Arba after prayers to mark the start of Sabbath.

Troops and armed settlers returned fire and gave chase into a narrow alley, where they cut down in an ambush.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Israeli helicopters carried out a raid on Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, destroying a metal workshop which the army said had been used to manufacture weapons for Palestinian militants.

Israeli soldiers also shot dead a 65-year-old Palestinian shepherd near Qalqilya in the West Bank. Troops first shouted at the man, then fired warning shots in the air to stop before firing at him - in the legs - the army said.
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