OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Independent: Israeli troops move into West Bank towns

Israeli troops and tanks moved into the West Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin early today, searching for Palestinian militants following the Jerusalem suicide bombing in which 20 people died.

In Hebron, also in the West Bank, Israeli forces demolished the bomber. Dozens of soldiers secured the area before dawn and set up explosives in the concrete house, which they detonated.

The family had moved out with their possessions after the bombing, expecting the home would be demolished. The bomber, 29-year-old mosque preacher Raed Mesk, was friends with an Islamic Jihad leader in Hebron, Mohammed Sidr, who was killed by Israeli troops last week.

Shots rang out in Jenin after 20 tanks, personnel carriers and other vehicles entered, witnesses said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties in either town. A curfew was imposed in central Nablus after more than 30 vehicles — mostly trucks and a few tanks — rolled in.