JERUSALEM — Israeli troops kept up their almost daily raids into Palestinian areas Sunday, searching for militants in two West Bank towns, maintaining a curfew on a string of villages and pulling out of Bethlehem after an incursion that lasted only a few hours.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the army would press ahead with its in-and-out raids because of a recent upsurge in Palestinian attacks.
"The wave of warnings, attempted terrorist attacks, and terrorist attacks is significant," Ben-Eliezer told the weekly Cabinet meeting. "Most attacks are thwarted, but a minority do get through."
Speaking in St. Petersburg, Russia, President Bush criticized Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, saying, "he hasn't delivered. He had a chance to secure the peace as a result of the hard work of President Clinton, and he didn't. He had a chance to fight terrorism, and he hasn't."
Later Sunday, in France, Bush praised the role of other Arab leaders in trying to get the peace process back on track and said he's sending American officials back to the region this week as part of that effort.
While Israel's high state of alert has thwarted some attacks, it has also been a factor in several cases where soldiers wounded or killed people they mistakenly identified as militants.
An Israeli soldier shot and wounded a deaf Israeli bus passenger that he suspected was a Palestinian suicide bomber, police said.
The bus driver became suspicious when a 25-year-old man boarded and silently paid his fare with a large bill, something suicide bombers have done previously, said police spokesman Yossi Almoslinos.
The driver stopped at a busy intersection in the town of Kfar Saba, which has been a target of several previous Palestinian attacks, and told the passengers to get off. The man under suspicion remained aboard and the bus driver drew his gun, signaling him to get off.
As the man started to leave, two soldiers and a border patrol officer drew their weapons and ordered the man to open his shirt to see if he was wearing explosives. When he didn't, one soldier shot at the ground, and the bullet ricocheted, slightly wounding the man in the leg, he said.
Only afterward did authorities determine the man was a deaf and mute Israeli, Almoslinos added.