JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came under wall-to-wall criticism at home today for the bungled 10-day siege of Yasser Arafat’s compound, which was aborted under intense U.S. pressure.

Several Cabinet ministers said Israel underestimated Washington’s opposition to the operation and its determination to keep the focus on Iraq ahead of a possible U.S. strike against Saddam Hussein.

In new violence today, Israeli troops enforcing a curfew in the West Bank town of Nablus and an adjacent refugee camp killed a 13-year-old Palestinian boy and wounded 25 people, some of them youngsters on the way to or from school, doctors and witnesses said. Many of the wounded were hurt in a clash in downtown Nablus, where dozens of Palestinians threw stones and several firebombs at troops who responded with gunfire. The army had no immediate comment.

In a report released today by Amnesty International, the London-based human rights said both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have allowed children to be killed with impunity during the two-year conflict.

At Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah, Israeli troops were out of sight at day after ending their siege though they still control the town, as well as most other population centers in the West Bank.

A small bulldozer brought in by the Palestinians cleared some of the rubble; in the initial assault last week, Israeli troops leveled all but one building. Workers swept up shattered glass, fixed water pipes and tried to salvage air conditioners while crowd gathered nearby to gawk. Vendors quickly arrived to sell ice cream, coffee and newspapers.

Arafat complained today that Israeli troops should pull back further and said Israel must now implement the remainder of last week’s U.N. Security Council resolution – a withdrawal from Palestinian cities.

Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh said that Arafat would resume consultations on appointing a new Cabinet to replace the ministers forced to resign earlier this month as part of an effort by members of Arafat’s Fatah movement to push Arafat to share power.