DUBAI, Aug 1: Tension was running high in West Asia today, as Israeli police arrested nearly 50 Palestinians in overnight raids in the West Bank as part of its crackdown after Wednesday's double suicide bombing in a Jerusalem market which killed 15 and left 178 wounded.

Israel has also sealed off the Gaza Strip and isolated the seven West Bank towns under Palestinian control, keeping thousands of Palestinians away from their jobs in Israel.

Immediately after the blast, Israel said it had decided to suspend peace talks with the Palestinians until the Palestinian Authority (PA) took steps against terrorist groups.

Fearing more attacks, Israel has also strengthened security in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, especially at bus-stops, street corners and other public places, regional news agencies said.

Palestinian officials have described the Israeli measures as ``a declaration of war against the (Palestinian) Authority and the Palestinian people''.``Instead of fighting terror, they have decided to fight the Palestinian Authority,'' Nabil Abu Rdainah, an aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, told Israel's Channel Two television.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeated charges that Arafat had done little to tackle violence and urged the international community to demand action in this regard.

``I believe that peace can move forward only if the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat undertake what he hasn't done so far and that is to act swiftly and decisively against the terrorists. They must live up to their obligations,'' Israeli newspapers quoted him as saying.

``You can't have peace when people are blown to smithereens,'' Netanyahu said.

Among various steps, Israel has decided to jam the transmissions of the Voice of Palestine Radio, though the station remained on air yesterday.Officials were quoted as saying that only broadcasts deemed to be political incitement would be jammed.

Other measures planned include stopping the flow of tax revenues to the Palestinians, the reports said.

Israel yesterday closed down a Palestinian labour and welfare institute in East Jerusalem, saying it was functioning as an office of the Palestinian Authority, regional news agencies said.

Israel has ordered the arrest of the Palestinian police chief Brig Gen Ghazi Jabali, accusing him of sending three policemen to attack Jewish settlers in the West Bank earlier this month.

Reports reaching here today quoted Netanyahu as saying that Jabali would be arrested if he left Palestinian territory.

Jabali, on his part, has denied the charges against him and warned that the Palestinian police would ``fight to the death'' if Israel carried out threats to conduct military operations against militants in the Palestinian-ruled areas.

``If they come here to Gaza or anywhere to catch me, they will not return,'' he told journalists in Gaza city.

Earlier in theday, merchants and shoppers crowded into the Mahaneyehuda open-air market in an effort to show that a double suicide bombing which killed 13 shoppers here would not scare them from their daily routines.``It takes more than a couple of terrorists to put us out of business,'' Shachar Yamin said as he cleared his shoe store of wreckage from Wednesday's blast.

``We'll be open for business as soon as the place is fixed up, and we can bring in new stock,'' he said. His sister-in-law, Yael Yamin, was injured in the blast but is already out of hospital, he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.