Israel suspends peace talks after nine die in bus bombing

9.20am

MOUNT MERON, Israel - A Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least nine people and wounded dozens when an explosion and fireball ripped through a packed bus in northern Israel today.

Hours later, a Palestinian teenager opened fire on an Israeli truck in East Jerusalem. The gunman and two other people were killed in the attack and the ensuing shootout with police.

Israel suspended talks due this week with Palestinians on security and easing hardships in West Bank cities under curfew, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said.

The powerful blast on a Galilee country road tore through the bus crowded with civilians and soldiers.

"I went to the door to get off and just then there was an explosion. I felt a ball of fire in the face and parts of people flew by," Boaz Altshuler, who was wounded, told Israeli TV.

In a statement issued in Gaza, the militant group Hamas said it had carried out the bombing in further revenge for an Israeli air raid on July 22 that killed its military commander Salah Shehada, his deputy and 13 other Palestinians, including nine children.

Thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza in support of Hamas. "This is the second response and those ahead will be tougher", a Hamas activist said through a megaphone.

"We congratulate the new commander of the brigades and we promise him our blood and souls will be cheaper for him."

The Palestinian Authority condemned the bus attack, but said in a statement Israel's policy of "mass detentions, repressive measures and home demolitions" was responsible for violence.

The bombing flew in the face of increased military action in the West Bank which Israel said was to deter future attacks.

Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer met aides to consider a response to the attacks, Israeli Army Radio said.

Israeli army spokeswoman Brigadier General Ruth Yaron declined to give details about future action but told Reuters: "We will have again to go on a much tighter closure in some of the cities. We'll continue the same kind of fighting and pursuit after the terrorists as in the last few weeks."

Israel on Sunday razed nine homes of relatives of Palestinian bombers and gunmen. President Yasser Arafat has called for international intervention to stop demolitions.

In the attack on the bus, travelling between the Mediterranean port of Haifa and the northern city of Safed, nine people were killed by the bomber, who also died, police said.

Three soldiers were among the dead, the army said. Israeli television said two Filipino women were killed and published their names and photographs. Embassy officials could not be reached. More than 50 people were wounded, hospitals said.

"I am distressed to hear about the latest suicide bombers in Israel," United States President George W Bush told reporters in Maine. "There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started. We must not let them."

"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers," Bush said.

Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, said meetings with the Palestinians were off for now.

Outside the Damascus Gate to East Jerusalem's Old City, police exchanged fire with a 19-year-old Palestinian who shot dead an Israeli in a truck. The gunman and a Palestinian passerby were killed, police said.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military group linked to Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attack, the al-Manar television station reported in Beirut.

In Gaza, Israeli soldiers killed an armed Palestinian as he tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement, the army said.

The Hamas statement said a "martyr" blew up the bus, but it would not release his name so Israel could not punish relatives.

Sunday's attack came four days after a Hamas bomb at Jerusalem's Hebrew University killed seven people, including five Americans.

US senators urged the US administration to choke off funding to Hamas from Arab states, including Saudi Arabia.

"We ought to be doing everything we can to cut the flow of support to Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups," Democrat Senator Joseph Lieberman said in Washington.

Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, told CNN's Late Edition programme: "And I believe that the Saudis continue to support Hamas. Others do as well, but we ought to get the Saudis to stop that kind of financial aid."

In the West Bank, the Israeli army searched for explosives, suspected bombers and their handlers in the Old City of Nablus. It said three soldiers were wounded by an explosive device on Sunday. Yaron said Israeli forces found a bomb laboratory.

At least 1479 Palestinians and 583 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after peace talks froze.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

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