Minister: No exile for Palestinian families

The IDF have been pushing the government to send the families of two accused terrorists to Gaza.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel's attorney general ruled Friday that Israeli forces cannot expel the families of accused terrorists from the West Bank unless they are directly linked to a terrorist attack, Israeli Army Radio reported.

The Israel Defense Forces have been pushing the government to send the families of two accused terrorists to Gaza. The militant Palestinian group Hamas threatened a "strong and bloody" response if the Israeli government approved the recommendation.

But Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein said Friday that would violate Israeli law unless it can be shown the family members are involved in terror attacks.

The Israelis suggested sending the families to Gaza because Gaza is sealed and surrounded by a security fence, making it much more difficult for those exiled to enter Israel or to return to their West Bank homes. Palestinians objected to the exile proposal because it would remove them from their homes, something that has been happening to Palestinians for decades, they said.

Before Rubinstein reached his decision, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he would have supported the plan if the attorney general concluded it was be legal.

"Look, it is obvious that we are being pushed to do things that we would willingly prefer not to do," Peres said. "But what happened this week, the two grave incidents ... it almost leaves us no choice."

The incidents Peres referred to were a dual suicide bombing Wednesday in Tel Aviv that killed three civilians and an attack by Palestinian gunmen on a bus near the West Bank settlement of Emanuel that killed nine people, including an infant born prematurely afterward, on Tuesday.

Israeli arrests 16 relatives of terror suspects

Israeli forces arrested at least 16 family members of two Palestinians it said were responsible for the attacks, a military spokesman said Friday. The arrests happened during an IDF operation near Nablus in the West Bank.

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In response to the proposed exile, the military wing of Hamas warned it would respond in a "strong and bloody" manner.

"We will send explosive messages to the Zionists everywhere we can get to," the statement said.

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization that is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. The group's military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military.

U.S. officials also condemned the exile proposal.

"We expect that Israel's actions in its campaign against terror will be based on information that's related to an individual's culpability, not to personal or family relationships," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

He added, "We think that taking punitive actions against innocent people will not solve Israel's security problems, and we'll be raising that issue with the Israeli government."

Israel forces also destroyed the houses of the two Palestinian militants blamed for two attacks this week in Emanuel and Tel Aviv, and another attack in Emanuel in December.

The Nablus-area houses belonged to Nasser A Din Assidi -- a Hamas member the IDF blames for several attacks, including the two in Emanuel -- and Ali Muhammad Ahmed Ajouri, a Fatah member Israeli authorities described as an expert bomb-maker. Israel blames Ajouri for coordinating for coordinating the double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

An ambush on a bus in the same area on December 12 killed 10 Israelis.

Israelis accused of selling guns to Palestinians

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities Friday held nine Israelis in connection with the sale of arms, including 60,000 rounds of ammunition, to Palestinians.

Four Israeli soldiers, a reserve Israeli army officer and an Israeli civilian were all arrested this week, authorities said. Friday, Israel Radio reported three Israel Defense Forces troops had been arrested, bringing the total held to nine.

Military police believed some of the weapons and ammunition were used in attacks on the settlements of Adura and Telem, both in the Hebron area. Three settlers were killed at Adura in an attack four months ago.

Military police, quoted by the Jerusalem daily Maariv, said the ammunition sale was "only the tip of the iceberg" and they expected "additional discoveries that would shock everyone."