Israel Warplanes Bomb Arafat HQ

RAMALLAH, West Bank –– Israel stepped up retaliation Monday for Palestinian shootings and bombings, launching attacks that killed 16 Palestinians including the wife and three children of an Islamic militant leader and a doctor whose ambulance was hit during rescue efforts.

Israel's security Cabinet decided late Sunday to intensify military strikes after 22 Israelis were killed in four weekend attacks by Palestinian militants. Israeli troops raided two Palestinian refugee camps Monday, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his country was at war.

Just after nightfall, an Israeli F-16 warplane dropped a bomb on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Bethlehem, Palestinian security officials said. There were no reports of casualties; the building had been evacuated for several days in expectation of an Israeli attack. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the deadliest single incident Monday, a pickup truck belonging to a leader of the militant group Hamas, Hussein Abu Kweik, was hit in the West Bank town of Ramallah by two shells fired from a nearby Israeli tank. A second car was hit by shrapnel.