JERUSALEM -- Israel was reacting with uncharacteristic calm after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian teenager killed three Israelis -- a test of Israel's pledge to show restraint during Yasser Arafat's illness.\nThe 16-year-old bomber blew himself up Monday on a narrow street in Tel Aviv's Carmel Market -- an area crowded with simple stalls and stands -- scattering bloody vegetables and spices on the ground.\nThe usual signs of an imminent Israeli military counterstrike -- the hurried high-level security meetings and troop movements -- were absent this time, and it appeared that Israel would not hit back as it has in the past.\nEarly Tuesday the army destroyed the homes of the bomber and those of two men Israel says were behind the attack, the army said.\nIsrael routinely destroys the homes of Palestinians involved in bombings, hoping it will act as a deterrent.\nUsing general terms, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced the attack and pledged action.\nSharon said Israel "will not stop its war against terrorism" and repeated his commitment to unilaterally disengage from the Palestinians, pulling out of the Gaza Strip next year.\n"I'm not changing my policy until there are changes in the Palestinian administration and until it stops its incitement and its terror," Sharon said. Israeli officials said they would show restraint in military operations to give the Palestinian leadership a chance to maintain order.\nArafat condemned the bombing from his hospital room outside Paris, and Palestinian leaders in the West Bank joined in. But the bombing undermined their efforts to show that despite the absence of their longtime leader, everything is under control.\n"(Arafat) appealed to all Palestinian factions to commit to avoid harming all Israeli civilians and he appealed to Sharon to take similar initiatives to avoid harming Palestinian civilians," Arafat's spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said in France.\nArafat was flown to France Friday, suffering from an undisclosed ailment that left him in serious condition. Doctors there have not yet announced results of medical tests.\nIn West Bank violence late Monday, Israeli troops in Nablus shot dead three militants affiliated with Arafat's Fatah movement.\nThe army said that during an attempt to arrest five members of the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the wanted men drew pistols. The soldiers fired first, killing three men, wounding one and arresting the fifth, the military said.\nThe Tel Aviv bombing, which killed three and wounded 32, was the 117th suicide bombing since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000 and was the first since Arafat left for France last week. In all, 494 Israelis have been killed in the attacks.\nThe Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical Palestine Liberation Organization faction, claimed responsibility, identifying the assailant as Eli Amer Alfar from the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.\nAlfar was one of the youngest Palestinian suicide bombers, and his parents lashed out at the militants who recruited him.\n"It's immoral to send someone so young," said Samir Abdullah, 45, Alfar's mother. "They should have sent an adult who understands the meaning of his deeds"
Israel ponders response to bombing
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