JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel threatened on Saturday to launch a "crushing offensive" and impose an indefinite reoccupation of Palestinian areas unless suicide bombing and shooting attacks against Israelis stopped.

"We have to take much more massive action than we have until now. If this means entering the territories and staying there for a long time then we will have to consider it," Amos Yaron, director general of the Defense Ministry, told Israel Radio, describing the potential action as a "crushing offensive."

A five-week reoccupation of Palestinian towns, cities and camps across the West Bank in April and early May led to the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians who Israel says are part of a "terrorist infrastructure."

The offensive included besieging Palestinian President Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites) in his Ramallah compound and destroyed portions of the civilian infrastructure such as water works, communications and electrical grids in Palestinian cities and towns throughout the West Bank.

But after Israeli troops withdrew to the fringes of West Bank cities, Palestinian bombing and shooting attacks resumed after a lull.

Two suicide bombers killed 26 Israelis in Jerusalem this week, and a Palestinian assault on a Jewish settlement killed five more people. The attacks persuaded President Bush ( news - web sites) to put off a speech outlining his road map for peace.

Bush also hesitated because of a rising debate within his administration over what Palestinians should be required to do to win the statehood they seek in the West Bank and Gaza Strip ( news - web sites).

The Israeli army tightened its grip on West Bank cities on Saturday after the latest bloodletting prompted the government to decide on Tuesday that it would recapture and hold land supposed to be ruled by the Palestinian Authority ( news - web sites) as long as attacks continued.

European Union ( news - web sites) leaders gathered in Spain on Saturday back an early international peace conference on the Middle East which should set a "well-defined timescale" for a political solution, according to a draft statement obtained by Reuters.

The statement, due to be approved by the 15 leaders on Saturday after a two-day summit in Seville, also condemns Palestinian suicide attacks while urging Israel to halt its military operations in the occupied territories.

ISRAELI CLAMPDOWN

Israeli soldiers continued operations in the Palestinian West Bank cities of Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem and the area of Betounia near Ramallah, reoccupied after the Jerusalem bombings, and also kept a presence encircling Qalqiliya and Tulkarm.

Tensions were high in Jenin a day after Israeli tanks fired on a fruit and vegetable market, killing three children and a man, and wounding 26 people who mistakenly thought a curfew was lifted and came out to shop.

In a statement, the Israeli army said an initial inquiry indicated that "the force erred in its action" but it stopped short of an apology.

On Thursday night, a Palestinian shot dead three Israeli children, their mother and a security guard in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar, spurring Israel to send tanks into nearby Nablus.

Witnesses said armed Jewish settlers shot and killed a man on Friday after driving into a Palestinian town near Nablus.

U.S. officials said the recent violence had intensified debate on future policy to be adopted toward the Palestinians.

They said pro-Israel conservatives in the White House close to Bush had stiffened their opposition to an interim Palestinian state suggested by Secretary of State Colin Powell ( news - web sites).

"They are saying, 'Why should be do anything for Arafat now?'," said a U.S. official who asked not to be named.

'URGENT NEED FOR POLITICAL ACTION'

In Seville, EU leaders said in the draft text that a Middle East meeting "should reaffirm the parameters of the political solution and establish a realistic and well-defined timescale."

"There is an urgent need for political action by the whole international community," they said, adding that Israeli and Palestinian leaders could not find a solution on their own.

Israeli forces also shot dead four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including a boy working in his family's fields and a man who threw grenades at soldiers, witnesses and officials said.

At least 1,414 Palestinians and 547 Israelis have been killed in 21 months of violence that erupted in September 2000 after talks on terms for a Palestinian state stalled.

In his planned speech, Bush had been expected to stipulate the swift creation of a Palestinian state with provisional borders within a year and permanent frontiers in three years, administration sources said.

They also said Bush would ask that Arafat's Palestinian Authority and its security services, which Israel says abet suicide attacks, would have to undergo democratic reform.

Israel in turn would have to halt raids into Palestinian towns and suspend settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza.

Middle East analysts fear the Bush plan could be stillborn, with the two sides locked in a cycle of violence driven by Palestinian militant bombers and a ruling Israeli right committed to preserving settlements.

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 The big show [b]is[/b] coming, however.

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Throughout my three years of law school I often times considered leaving, going to Israel and joinning their army to kick some PLO ass...

The temptation to this old Jarhead is great...and now that I'm faced with the bar exam, the temptation is even greater!