Hamas MPs barred from Jerusalem after suicide blast

Ehud Olmert's inner security cabinet ratcheted up its siege on the Hamas government after Monday's Tel Aviv suicide bombing, but opted against launching a large-scale military reprisal against the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

Ministers, who blame the new Palestinian leadership for not stopping terrorism, took the step yesterday of revoking the Israeli residency rights of three Hamas MPs who live in Jerusalem. They will probably have to move to the West Bank and lose contact with their constituents. Israel had already stopped them from holding political meetings in the city.

Israel plans to tighten separation between the West Bank and Israel, and the West Bank and Gaza. It will also intensify search and arrest operations in Palestinian areas.

Raanan Gissin, a government spokesman, said: "We go in and out, and we'll do that wherever necessary."

Israeli troops yesterday raided the home of Samer Hamad, the young Islamic Jihad bomber who killed nine civilians and wounded about 60 outside a Tel Aviv falafel bar. They arrested his 55-year-old father, Samih. Witnesses said that about 40 soldiers entered the village of Arakeh, near Jenin, and searched the family home. They also arrested Imad Mustafa, a friend of the bomber. But by nightfall the army had not followed its usual practice of demolishing the homes of terrorists.

Shadi Hamad, a cousin, said that hundreds of mourners attended a symbolic funeral, carrying an empty coffin. Representatives of Islamic Jihad and Fatah, the former ruling party of President Mahmoud Abbas, delivered eulogies. Hamas kept quiet, although a minister reiterated its endorsement of Monday's bombing as a legitimate act of self-defence.

Saeed Syam, the Interior Minister, told reporters in Gaza: "We are not a great power who can confront the planes and the missiles of the occupation, but our people have the will and the right to defend themselves and to confront as much as they can the arrogance of the occupation."

Western donors have cut off tens of millions of dollars in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, demanding that Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel's right to exist. Hamas has rejected the calls, despite a financial crisis that has left the government unable to pay the salaries of 140,000 employees.

Instead, it has appealed to Muslim countries to make up the shortfall, winning $50m commitments from Iran and Qatar each this week. The Russian daily Izvestiya reported yesterday that Russia will send an additional $10m.