The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, has said she is shocked by a suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Saturday in which at least 10 Israelis died.
"I learned with shock and horror of the killings yesterday in Jerusalem, Robinson said in a statement late last night.
"Acts of suicide bombings in Israel harm the interests and aspirations of the Palestinian people because they undermine support for the cause of self-determination and the fight against occupation," she said.
A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Jerusalem, killing 10 Israelis. Another two Palestinian ambushes killed 12 Israelis, seven of them soldiers, yesterday.
"I call with great urgency on the leaders of the region to show the necessary political will and courage to bring the violence to an end," Mrs Robinson said. "It is imperative to get a political framework that gives some hope in order to break this terrible cycle of violence.
"I cannot state strongly enough how much it is both an international responsibility and for the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to provide that political way forward," she said.
Mrs Robinson was in Bahrain as part of a tour that will take her to Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan.