TEL AVIV, June 19: Israel took over two West Bank towns on Wednesday, announcing a new, hardline policy to occupy Palestinian territory and exact other reprisals until suicide attacks on its people are halted.

And it was quickly backed by the White House, which said the Jewish state had the right to defend itself.

The government decreed the tough line after a suicide bombing in occupied Al Quds on Tuesday killed 19 Israelis and wounded 50 others on a bus _ the deadliest assault on the Jewish state in nearly three months.

Israeli troops, tanks and armoured personnel carriers rumbled into the northern West Bank towns of Jenin and Qalqilya, both centres of Palestinian hardliners, and briefly occupied the town of Nablus, officials said.

Israel had vowed to take “several military actions” against Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority (PA) following the Tuesday blast that gutted the bus, crowded with commuters and schoolchildren.

A statement from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office pledged “a change in the way Israel responds to murderous acts of terror. Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing PA territory.

“These areas will be held by Israel as long as terror continues. Additional acts of terror will lead to the taking of additional areas.”

An official said Israel was also considering the expulsion of senior Palestinian officials as part of its crackdown, but that Arafat would not be targeted.

Israeli public radio said police had arrested about 1,200 Palestinians in the past 24 hours after finding them on Israeli territory illegally.

Most were sent back to the West Bank, while the rest were detained for trial, the radio said.

The Palestinian leadership condemned Israel’s get-tough policy, calling it “part of a plan aiming to destroy our institutions.

“This aggression aims to wipe out the international diplomatic efforts to put the peace process back on track and stop the crimes of the Israeli occupation forces,” a statement said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush “understands that Israel is in the middle of recovering from a very serious attack. The president believes that Israel has a right to defend itself.

“The president hopes that whatever action Israel takes will be cognizant to the fact that the path to peace must still be pursued and Israel has to remember the consequences of its actions today for what happens tomorrow,” said Fleischer.

Palestinian and Israeli officials said Israeli infantry units, backed by dozens of tanks, as well as armoured personnel carriers and helicopter gunships, moved into Jenin and its refugee camp around dawn.

Israeli troops rounded up hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin camp, which was the scene in April of some of the fiercest fighting in Israel’s six-week West Bank military offensive.

Six army buses left the camp with as many as 250-300 people on board after a call was made for all able-bodied men to present themselves for identity checks.—Agencies