Israel on alert after bombers target Nazareth

JERUSALEM - Israel's security services were on high alert last night, and Tel Aviv was ringed by roadblocks, amid growing signs that Palestinian guerrillas are increasingly choosing the heart of Israel for attacks.

Israeli police were scouring the centre of the country for more car bombs after a taxi exploded after being stopped at a police roadblock south of Nazareth, killing one Israeli and injuring nine people, at least three seriously.

Since the start of the Palestinian intifada, there have been five serious attacks over the 1967 Green Line between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.

Most of these involved bombs, although the worst was the killing of eight Israelis by a Palestinian bus driver who hit a queue at a stop last month.

But Palestinian guerrilla cells are believed to be trying to extend their activities inside Israel as the country's leadership is in an interregnum period between the defeated Ehud Barak and the arrival in office of the new premier-elect, Ariel Sharon. Mr Sharon is not expected to set up his coalition government until next week.

Yesterday's road block was set up by Israeli police to try to trap a Palestinian guerrilla cell suspected of planting a briefcase bomb at a fast-food store in Tel Aviv.

That was discovered on Wednesday, and detonated in a controlled explosion. Israeli security officials believe the same man who planted the failed Tel Aviv bomb activated the roadblock explosives with a cellular phone. He lost hislegs and is being guarded in hospital.

The violence has triggered fresh Israeli demands for Yasser Arafat to discipline Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, especially those freed from Palestinian prisons at the start of the intifada. But there is abundant evidence that those driving the conflict – now a guerrilla war as well as an uprising – are outside his control.

"As long as activists of Hamas and the Jihad are walking around free in the West Bank and Gaza, the responsibility is of those who let them walk around freely," said the deputy defence minister, Ephraim Sneh. "We see the Palestinian Authority as responsible for the situation."

Mr Arafat's security forces, called a terrorist entity by Israel's armed forces chief, were criticised yesterday by Palestinian human rights activists over the death in custody of a 37-year-old man suspected of collaborating with Israel.

The brother of the victim says Palestinian intelligence officers tortured him to death, leaving him to hang for a week from the ceiling of a cell.