AT least 14 passengers were killed when an explosives-laden jeep driven by two Palestinian suicide bombers drew up next to a bus near the Israeli coastal town of Hadera yesterday afternoon and exploded, turning the packed vehicle into a fireball.
Both bombers were killed in the blast.
More than 50 people were injured, at least five seriously, in what was the first suicide attack to cause multiple casualties since a bomber blew himself up on a bus in Tel Aviv a month ago, killing six people.
Police said the bombers pulled alongside the bus as it stopped to let passengers off at a junction east of Hadera, which is located 15 km from the West Bank.
The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a letter faxed to the Associated Press in Beirut.
Citing recent Israeli military actions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which have resulted in civilian deaths, the fax said the attack was "retaliation for the series of massacres committed by the criminal enemy against our people".
Israeli military officials said they believed the bombers had come from Jenin, in the northern West Bank, which has produced many of the suicide bombers since violence erupted between the sides two years ago.
In the past, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, has launched a harsh military response in retaliation for bombings, but Mr Sharon, who visited Washington last week, knows that an escalating confrontation with the Palestinians could hamper a possible US military campaign against Iraq.
The Bush administration condemned the bombing.
The White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said it was "another reminder of how it's so important for peace to be pursued and for terror to be stopped".
Standing near the gutted bus, Mr Uzi Landau, the Minister of Public Security, said there could be no return to a political process until "it is made clear to the terror organisations that they will not achieve anything through terror".
Mr Landau, a member of the ruling Likud party known for his hawkish views, added that Israel should "not be deceived by talk that the Palestinian Authority is changing" and should "not take its foot off the gas" in fighting terror.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, who was visiting Luxembourg yesterday, said the Palestinian Authority was not doing enough to extinguish violence.
"We don't feel the Palestinians . . . [are using] the forces available to them, which are 30,000 or 40,000 policemen, in at least an attempt to prevent it . . . not only are people being killed, but the peace process is being endangered."
While Israel automatically holds Mr Arafat responsible after every attack, the Palestinian leader yesterday issued his customary condemnation, telling reporters at his Ramallah compound that "we are condemning completely terrorist activity against civilians - Israelis and Palestinians".
The Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, convened senior defence officials last night to discuss the ramifications of the attack, including the possibility that Israel might delay the planned redeployment of its military in the West Bank town of Hebron.
In an attempt to thwart suicide attacks, Israel has placed guards on buses. A spokesman for the country's main bus co-operative, Mr Ron Ratner, said yesterday that security officers in cars were now also trailing buses, in an attempt to head off potential car bombs.
"From the first reports reaching me, there was such a vehicle a few dozen meters from the car bomb," he said.