In New York, Arab delegates put off introducing a U.N. Security Council resolution on the Israeli air raid in Gaza City, with diplomats saying there were divisions among ambassadors over the text.

Two groups claimed responsibility for killing Rabbi Elimelech Shapira, 43, and wounding another man in an ambush as they drove along a road near a Jewish settlement close to the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Thursday.

"The operation is part of the armed struggle and in response to the assassination of our people in Gaza and (Hamas militant) Salah Shehada," the Popular Army Front-Return Battalions, a coalition of militant groups, said in a statement.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group which is part of the coalition and is linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, also took responsibility for the ambush. The Islamic organization Hamas has vowed to kill hundreds of Israelis to avenge Tuesday's attack by an F-16 fighter-bomber which fired a one-ton guided missile at the house of Shehada, commander of Hamas's military wing, killing him and 14 others.

Nine children were killed, most of them in buildings near Shehada's home, in the assault that has been criticized in Israel and abroad.

In New York, Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said Arab ambassadors would meet again on Friday and then seek reactions among council members.

"We don't want to push anyone before we know that something is possible," he told Reuters, in an apparent reference to the United States, which opposes the resolution.

Syria, the only Arab nation with a seat on the council, reportedly believed the text, circulated informally by Saudi Arabia as current head of the Arab group of nations, was not worded strongly enough, council sources said.

Damascus was said to believe that language used by speakers in a late Wednesday Security Council meeting was a more forceful message to Israel than any resolution the 15-member council, especially the United States, could accept.

Most Arab ambassadors wanted the 15-member council to adopt a resolution demanding the "withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces from Palestinian cities."

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told the council that its past resolutions formed a "more than adequate basis to guide efforts to achieve a negotiated solution."

Israel was roundly criticized during the debate, with nation after nation saying Tuesday's attack was unreasonable and unacceptable.

ISRAEL EXPRESSES REGRET

Israel's deputy ambassador, Aaron Jacob, expressed regret at the deaths, but said the action was precipitated by the failure of the Palestinian Authority to stop Shehada, "one of the most prolific and brutal terrorists."

"Had we known the result beforehand, we would never have carried out the operation," he said. "Our regret is sincere and profound."

But Kidwa said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his "lieutenants" should be tried for war crimes and that the world needed to stop Israeli actions, whether on the ground or in the political sphere.

Sharon used every excuse to avoid a genuine peace settlement "so that the occupation and the colonization and settlement activities could continue," the Palestinian U.N. observer said.

Europeans said the raid was unreasonable and risked squashing all peace efforts. Irish Ambassador Richard Ryan said an attack of this sort was bound to cause casualties.

"To suggest anything otherwise is disingenuous," he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israelis and Palestinians alike must brace for more violence following the air strike, in which he said Israel had made mistakes.

"I know that this is a serious escalation and I am really afraid that innocent people on both sides will pay a high price," Peres told Israel's Army Radio.

THOUSANDS ATTEND RABBI'S FUNERAL

Rabbi Shapira was buried on Thursday in a funeral attended by several thousand Israelis, who paid condolences to his widow and eight children.

On Thursday night, Palestinians in Gaza fired a Qassam missile at an Israeli kibbutz over the border, military sources said. It landed close to a house but there were no injuries.

Witnesses said troops arrested four Palestinians in Qalqilya after the West Bank ambush, including a militant leader, and that an army bulldozer demolished the house where he was found.

At least 1,467 Palestinians and 560 Israelis have been killed since Palestinians began an uprising for independence in September 2000 after peace talks stalled. Israel reoccupied West Bank cities last month in response to suicide bombings.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington constantly reviewed Israel's use of U.S. weapons but he gave no hint it would suffer consequences for the F-16 air raid. The U.S. government has criticized the air strike as heavy-handed.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, speaking during a visit to Paris, said the Gaza attack was an attempt by Sharon to sabotage recent efforts by Palestinian moderates to reduce violence.

(China Daily July 27, 2002)