Militant Islamic movement Hamas said today it would carry out more suicide bombings in Israel.
The threat came after Israeli tanks moved deep into a West Bank town to destroy a Palestinian police headquarters.
"It will lead to more escalation, it will lead to more strikes by Palestinians," a senior Hamas official said.
Early today, Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into the northern West Bank town of Jenin and destroyed the police headquarters near the Palestinian governor's office. They came under heavy Palestinian fire before withdrawing.
Hamas said its attack last Thursday on a Jerusalem pizza parlour that killed 16 people including the suicide bomber was only the start of a campaign of retaliation for the killing by Israel of eight Palestinians, including two leading Hamas activists, in the West Bank city of Nablus on July 31st.
"Hamas will avenge the blood of its martyrs and the attack in Jerusalem was only the beginning of the revenge," the Hamas official said. "Ariel Sharon should be prepared for more strikes. The crime in Nablus can never go without a punishment," he said.
Mr Sharon accuses Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat of giving militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad free rein to use Palestinian territory to mount suicide attacks in Israel.
Israeli officials said Jenin had become a hub of operations for Islamic Jihad. The raid was meant as a message to Mr Arafat to round up militants, they said.