[The Guardian - Jerusalem, Monday September 10, 2001]: A middle-aged man from Galilee carried out the first suicide attack by an Arab citizen of the Jewish state yesterday, confronting Israel with the prospect of waging war against the enemy within on a day of bombings, drive-by shootings and helicopter gunship strikes.

Seven people were killed in three separate attacks within the space of five hours, a rapid-fire sequence of events even by the standards of the year-old Palestinian uprising.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the platform of an open- air railway station in the northern coastal town of Nahariya, just as a train was pulling in from Tel Aviv. Three Israelis were killed and several dozen wounded.

"I was standing nearby and I heard a great explosion. It took me a minute to come to my senses and then I saw glass everywhere and I saw people running like crazy," a witness told Israeli television. "People were crying and hysterical."

Israeli radio and television said that the bomber was Mohammed Shaqir Habishi, 55, a father of six from the Galilee village of Kafr Abu Snein. The attack could signal the opening of a dangerous new front, which would pit Israel against an internal enemy: the 1m Arab citizens of the Jewish state. It also renders ineffective the Israeli army's proposals to protect Jewish civilians by declaring a swath of the West Bank a no-go area for Palestinians.

Thirteen Israeli Arabs were shot dead by riot police in the protests that convulsed the Galilee at the start of the uprising. Since then, Israeli Arabs have been largely removed from the uprising of their ethnic kin in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

However, Israeli officials have been warning for weeks that militant Palestinian groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are recruiting inside the Arab towns of the north, feeding off resentments about discrimination and neglect by successive Jewish governments.

Intelligence officials said that they had been hunting Habishi - described as a supporter of Hamas - for 10 days.

The day's catalogue of bloodshed began when a jeep overtook a van ferrying Israeli teachers to a school at a Jewish settlement in the Jordan valley on the eastern perimeters of the West Bank, spraying it with automatic rifle fire. The driver and a woman teacher were shot dead, and three others were wounded.

Two hours later, Habishi struck at the northern reaches of Israel, spewing nails and metal debris into a crowd of commuters.

Barely had Israeli helicopter gunships retaliated for that attack - with seven missiles launched on two offices of Yasser Arafat's Fatah organisation in Ramallah, and another attack on Jericho - when news came in of a second bombing inside the borders of the Jewish state.

Witnesses said a red Peugeot exploded beside a traffic light at the Beit Lid junction near the coastal city of Netanya, in cinerating the driver and four vehicles, including a bus; 11 people were hurt. Police said the bomber was heading for a bus stop used by Israeli soldiers when his deadly cargo exploded prematurely.

The cluster of attacks at the start of Israel's working week deepened a sense of siege as the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, convened his cabinet to discuss the military's proposals for no-go areas in the West Bank and to decide on further reprisals.

The violence also appeared to rule out the latest efforts for ceasefire talks between the foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and Mr Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Mr Peres said at the weekend that he hoped to hold three meetings with Mr Arafat.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion at Beit Lid, but the military wing of Hamas claimed the Nahariya bombing - before it emerged that the bomber was an Israeli Arab - and the rival Islamic Jihad said it had carried out the road ambush in the Jordan valley. However, a spokesman said that Mr Arafat was ultimately responsible for all violent acts committed by Palestinians. He also said he could see no point to the meetings.

"What is the use of such talks when Arafat speaks about peace and then turns around to instigate terrorist activities. That is what happened today," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Mr Sharon. "What does this man want? Does he want peace, or does he want to continue to head a coalition of terror groups and to reign over a kingdom of terror?"

>From the West Bank city of Ramallah, a statement from Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority disowned all three attacks, saying it "condemns all operations that target Israeli and Palestinian civilians".

Under the plans, which would further choke freedom of movement in the West Bank, Palestinians will be barred from approaching the Green Line unless they hold a pass from Israeli authorities. Those who disobey - especially at night when a curfew would be in place - could be shot.

The army's idea for imposing a line of separation along the Palestinian side of the frontier with Israel was leaked to local media this week, and immediately drew condemnation from Palestinian officials.

It also puts the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, in an embarrassing predicament, with the Israeli military pushing for its immediate implementation before political approval is assured.

Israeli officials say the cordon sanitaire is intended to further seal off the Jewish state from Palestinian suicide bombers who have evaded army checkpoints and the mounds of rubble that now block many access roads, to strike at Israeli cities.

It is unclear whether Israel plans to impose no-go areas along the entire length of the green line, which runs for about 180 miles demarcating the lands that were once under Jordanian control but were occupied by Israel after the 1967 war.

The buffer zone plans are also intended to satisfy a psychological need of many Israelis who have lost all faith in coexistence, and want to cut their last ties to the Palestinians, bringing about "unilateral separation", as it is called here.

The Gaza Strip has been sealed off from Israel by a high-voltage fence for years. Since April, the Israeli army has widened that division by bulldozing Palestinian homes and fruit orchards close to the border fence.

However, the West Bank is traversed by hills and canyons which rule out installing a fence along the entire length of the green line.

Instead, the military has proposed carving out no-go areas within the occupied territories - ranging from several hundred yards to more than a mile in depth - especially around Jerusalem and the northern reaches of the West Bank, close to Israel's coastal cities.

The latest military plan comes in tandem with a process that has been pursued quietly for months. Several Israeli towns along the green line have installed razor wire, electric fences, and 10ft barricades. Jeeps also patrol their perimeters.

Now the Israeli army wants to act on the Palestinian side of the green line.

"These areas will be closed military zones. Those who would like to work in their fields will have to get a licence," said the Israeli army spokesman, Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey.

"At night especially, anybody there will be regarded as breaking the law. We will have to regard him as a suspect or a potential terrorist, and we have procedures for that."

However, there was confusion in the Israeli establishment over how the declaration of closed military zones would affect Palestinians living in cities such as Qalqiliya and Tulkaram, which are hard up against the green line. Brig Kitrey said that the exclusion orders would apply only in rural areas, but a spokesman for Ariel Sharon said that they would also apply to urban areas.

"The whole programme is designed for areas where there can be an influx of large numbers of people - the troublesome areas, those that kiss the areas that are close to the green line," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Mr Sharon.

The proposals became a subject of some embarrassment on Wednesday when the army was forced to call off an announcement, and wait for Mr Sharon to get cabinet approval.

Despite immediate condemnation from Palestinian officials, and the prospect of an international backlash, Mr Sharon remains committed to the plan. "It is a process that is meant to happen in the future," he told reporters.

• Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at Palestinian activists driving in the West Bank city of Tulkaram yesterday, killing two but failing to assassinate the main target. Raed al-Karmi, a commander in Yasser Arafat's Fatah militia, escaped from the vehicle. Five people were injured.