The Israeli army on Wednesday razed the family home of a Palestinian suicide bomber who jarred a six-week-old cease-fire but avoided major military responses, mindful of calls for restraint to preserve a shaky peace plan.

Palestinians search the debris of the demolished family home of suicide bomber Khamis Jarwan after the Israeli army destroyed it in the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus August 13, 2003. [Reuters]

Two suicide bombers from Nablus killed two Israelis in back-to-back attacks on Tuesday in what their militant factions said were acts of revenge for an army raid in Nablus that killed two wanted Hamas men in the West Bank city.

Before Palestinian faction chiefs declared a truce, suicide bombings often brought sledgehammer Israeli counter-strikes with tanks or missiles. This time Israel said it was committed to achieving calm to advance on the "road map" plan for peace.

The fact that Israelis are enjoying their first relatively quiet summer for three years with a revival of tourism crucial to the economy also militated against a swift relapse into the cycle of tit-for-tat bloodshed that scuttled previous diplomacy.

Israeli forces settled for demolishing the home of Khamis Jarwan, 17, from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who blew himself up in an Israeli supermarket. The demolition in Nablus's Askar refugee camp in the pre-dawn hours left 12 people homeless.

The other suicide bomber, who killed a Jewish settler at a West Bank bus stop, also lived in Askar near the Jarwan family. Israeli army bulldozers remained in the neighborhood, raising the possibility that the second bomber's house would go as well.

13-year-old Palestinian Amal Gerwan(R) and her 8-year-old sister Hiba look toward the rubble of their house demolished by the Israeli army after their brother, Khamis Gerwan, 17, carried out a suicide bombing in Rosh Haayin Tuesday, killing one Israeli man. [AP]

Islamic militant chiefs suggested the attacks were a one-off reaction and said they still stood by the truce they declared along with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

ISRAEL STICKS TO ROAD MAP, WITH PROVISO

A senior ally of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel was not abandoning the peace push despite the attacks.

"We are not prepared to come to terms with such attacks, but I do not believe we have reached the point where the Israeli government says it has failed in its efforts to achieve calm and to try to move forward in the (peace) process," deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Channel One television.

But Sharon said Israel could not stick to it "despite its strong desire to do so ... if terror does not stop completely."

Echoed by U.S. officials, he again demanded that Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate who leaned on militants to forge the truce and condemned the bombings, dissolve armed groups as mandated by the internationally-sponsored peace plan.

Palestinian authorities have hesitated to do so, citing fears of civil war unless Israel first pulls back forces from West Bank cities and removes roadblocks that have throttled the Palestinian economy and embittered the general public.

Senior political leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi of Hamas, which is sworn to destroying Israel, dismissed the notion of Palestinian authorities dismantling it.

"I don't think Israel and the U.S. will succeed in their aim to spark an internal Palestinian struggle, first of all because of continued Israeli aggression and the absence of any political progress made by the Palestinian Authority," he said in Gaza.

Israeli military disengagement is another of a series of confidence-building steps in the road map, a three-stage plan for a Palestinian state by 2005 in West Bank and Gaza Strip territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

The plan has bogged down in disputes over which side should do what first, underscoring a profound mutual lack of trust.

Israeli officials say militants are abusing Israel's scaling back of military operations during the truce period to stockpile bombs and rockets for more attacks after it expires.

Abbas has objected to Israel's continuation of raids and town closures although violence has subsided markedly, its building of a security barrier dissecting land Palestinians seek for a state, and reluctance to free thousands of prisoners.

Secretary of State Colin Powell stayed upbeat. "We will continue to move forward on the road map. We will not be stopped by bombs," he told Israeli and Arab students in a speech.

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