TEL AVIV, June 20: Israel started mobilizing reserve soldiers on Thursday and expanded military operations on the West Bank in the wake of two bombings that killed 26 Israelis and left US peace efforts in limbo.

The latest round of killings forced US President George W. Bush to delay his much-anticipated announcement of a new Middle East strategy for fear his words would fall on deaf ears.

With Israeli tanks and troops in five West Bank towns and the government vowing to occupy Palestinian land until the suicide attacks stop, the Israeli army began an emergency call-up of reservists, .

It did not say how many of the more than 400,000 reservists would be mobilized in the third call-up this year. Israel activated 20,000 soldiers when it launched a massive six-week offensive in the West Bank on March 29, after a similar wave of kamikaze blasts.

The news came as the Israelis rolled on Thursday into Bethlehem, Tulkarem and a suburb of Ramallah, the town where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is currently headquartered.

The army operated for a second straight day in the northern West Bank towns of Jenin and Qalqilya, where a pregnant woman was killed in fighting on Thursday.

It was also active around Nablus, imposing a curfew on neighbouring villages.

The Israelis pursued their campaign after the second suicide bombing in two days shook occupied Al Quds and killed seven Israelis at a bus stop on Wednesday.

The attack, which also injured 50, was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Arafat’s Fatah movement. The carnage came a day after a Palestinian blew himself up on a bus carrying commuters and schoolchildren, killing 19 people in the deadliest attack in the Israel-occupied areas since the intifada erupted.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, frustrated by the inability of the region’s mightiest army to stem the attacks, vowed to punish any new bombings by seizing and holding on to Palestinian territory until they stop.

Analysts wondered how well the regular army, estimated to number 180,000 troops, would cope in its latest tussle with the Palestinians.

“The regular army is stretched to its limits,” said the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. “If anyone thinks that the regular army can continue at this rate over time without help from the reserves — they’re wrong.”

Just hours after the latest kamikaze strike, Israeli troops, backed by some 60 tanks and armoured troop carriers and overflying helicopters, moved into Bethlehem from several directions.

They deployed in the centre of the town, near the Church of the Nativity and the Dheisheh refugee camp, searching houses in both areas as well as the town of Doha to the south.—AFP