HIGHLIGHTS: Bush Furious over University Bombing & May Retaliate for the Death of Five Americans in the Blast on Tuesday||Hamas Regrets American Deaths But Won't Apologize ||Occupation Troops Kill 9-year Old Girl in Gaza Thursday & an Old Woman on Friday||Israel Expels Two Bombers' Brothers to Gaza for Two Years|| STORY: Israeli occupation troops backed by more than 150 tanks poured into the center of the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, killing three Palestinians as Israel struck back for a deadly bombing in Jerusalem.

The Israeli occupation army said it was launching a mission to root out what it calls a "local terror network" just two days after Hamas militants detonated a bomb in a cafeteria at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, killing five Americans and two Israelis.

BODIES OF AMERICANS FLOWN HOME

The bodies of two of the American victims were being flown home on Friday as the FBI) launched an investigation into the attack, which drew words of outrage from President Bush.

The deaths of Americans seemed certain to complicate U.S. attempts to act as an even-handed peace broker in a conflict that has raged for more than 22 months.

HAMAS REGRETS AMERICAN DEATHS BUT WON'T APOLOGIZE

A spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas, which claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, said the Americans were not the intended target and expressed regret for their deaths.

"They are American citizens who just came here to visit," Abdul Aziz Rantissi told The Associated Press. "Our battle is against the (Israeli) occupation." However, he said he was referring only to "pure" American citizens, "not those who have dual citizenship." One of the dead had American and Israeli citizenship.

CASBAH SURROUNDED

After vowing harsh retaliation against the militant group Hamas for carrying out the bombing, Israel sent columns of tanks deep into the heart of Palestinian-ruled Nablus, which had been surrounded and under strict curfew for weeks, witnesses said.

Troops exchanged fire with Resistance men as they assaulted their main target, the Casbah, or Old City, a warren of alleyways where Palestinian fighters holed up and fought fiercely during a month-long Israeli offensive in the West Bank last spring.

Israel's occupation Army Radio reported that occupation army sources believed the bomb planted at Hebrew University was assembled at an underground munitions workshop in the northern West Bank city.

HAMAS ACTIVIST, TWO OTHER PALESTINIANS KILLED

Israeli forces seized control of Nablus and most other West Bank cities and towns following back-to-back Resistance bombings in Jerusalem in mid-June, but this was the largest incursion into the city center since the operation began.

Palestinian security and medical sources said occupation troops killed a Hamas member in his home in a village on the outskirts of Nablus and shot dead two other Palestinians in the Casbah area.

GAZA INCURSION

Half a dozen tanks also thrust into the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, and a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli gunfire, Palestinian security sources said.

In the Gaza Strip, one Palestinian was killed and two wounded in exchanges of fire early Friday, when Israeli troops destroyed three structures along the Gaza border with Egypt, residents said. The military said soldiers destroyed an abandoned building used by Palestinians to fire anti-tank missiles.

Also in Gaza, Israel soldiers fatally shot an elderly Palestinian woman outside her home at an encampment near the Kissufim crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, her son said. The army said it was checking the report.

Late on Thursday, occupation soldiers guarding an internationally illegal Jewish settlement in the central Gaza Strip shot dead a nine-year-old Palestinian girl, Palestinian security sources said.

The Israeli occupation army branded Nablus a "base for terrorist groups" behind a recent wave of attacks and said troops were conducting house-to-house searches in a sweep for militants.

The Israeli operation followed Bush's harsh condemnation of Wednesday's bombing in Jerusalem and an expression of support for Israel's right to defend itself.

"I'm just as angry as Israel is right now," Bush told reporters in Washington on Thursday. "I'm furious that innocent life was lost. However, through my fury, even though I am mad, I still believe peace is possible."

Bush gave no indication the United States would retaliate against Hamas. But a Hamas leader was quick to deny his group had deliberately targeted U.S. citizens.

HEBRON DEMOLITION

In the West Bank city of Hebron, the army blew up the home of a Palestinian gunman who killed two Israelis in Jerusalem last November before police shot him dead. Relatives of the militant said 50 people were made homeless.

In Tulkarm, also in the West Bank, Israeli forces destroyed a house belonging to the family of a Palestinian bomber who killed three people in the central Israeli city of Netanya in March 2001, the military said.

The demolitions followed a decision on Wednesday by Israel's security cabinet to take punitive action against relatives of militants who order or carry out attacks against Israelis. Israeli officials say the measures could deter future attackers.


ISRAEL EXPELLS FIRST PALESTINIANS

Israel has meanwhile made good on its threat to expel relatives of wanted Palestinians -- officially ordering two brothers of Resistance activists to the Gaza Strip -- following two Jerusalem bombings in as many.

Israel's Center for the Defense of the Individual said the West bank occupation army leadership had announced that Gaza Kifah Adjuri, 28, from Askar refugee camp, and Abdel Nasser Assidi, 34, from the village of Tel, both in the West Bank, would each be expelled for two years.

The men are just two of 21 Palestinians arrested in mid-July because they were related to Resistance activists who killed 14 people in two bloody attacks last month. All except one who was released on health grounds were reportedly being detained for questioning at the Russian Compound jail in Jerusalem.

Lawyers for the men said they would appeal against the orders, which along with house demolitions have been described by Palestinian officials as collective punishment.

UN WORRIED ABOUT EXPULSIONS

In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said that Secretary-General Kofi Annan "continues to be deeply concerned" by reports that Israel planned to expel Palestinians from the West Bank to Gaza.

PHOTO CAPTION

Young Palestinians run from Israeli tanks in Balata near the West Bank town of Nablus Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002. Clashes between the youths and Israeli forces are almost a daily occurence. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)
- Aug 01 10:46 AM