Twelve people have been killed in seperate incidents in Israel. In the first, a suicide bomber turned a packed bus in northern Israel into a fireball on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, police and rescue services said. Hours later, a gunman left three dead in an attack an Israeli telephone company truck.
Twelve killed in Israel attacks
Twelve people have been killed in separate incidents in Israel. In the first, a suicide bomber turned a packed bus in northern Israel into a fireball on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, police and rescue services said. Hours later, a gunman left three dead in an attack an Israeli telephone company truck.
The powerful blast on a Galilee country road tore gaping holes in the sides and roof of the inter-city bus crowded with civilians and soldiers returning to base during the morning rush hour at the start of the Israeli work week.
Witnesses and rescue workers said the explosion ignited an inferno that blazed for 10 minutes before the fire brigade arrived.
In a statement issued in Gaza, the militant group Hamas said it carried out the attack in further revenge for an Israeli air raid on July 22 that killed its military commander Salah Shehada, his deputy and 13 other Palestinians.
The bombing flew in the face of stepped up Israeli military action in the West Bank, including the demolition of nine homes of relatives of Palestinian suicide bombers and other gunmen, action which Israel said was aimed at deterring future attacks.
Palestinian officials, who denounced the attack, insisted Israel was to blame because of its hardline policies in the territories, where it has re-occupied almost the entire West Bank and sealed off the Gaza Strip.
US President George W. Bush condemned the attack and urged all nations to help end anti-Israeli "terrorism". "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers," he said from his family home in Maine.
Just hours after the bus bombing, a Palestinian man armed with a pistol went on a shooting spree outside the Old City in east Jerusalem, killing an Israeli working for a phone company before being gunned down in a shoot-out with the police.
A Palestinian bystander was also killed in the exchange of fire, which left a dozen people wounded.
In the Gaza Strip, an armed Palestinian wearing a wetsuit was killed early today on the northern coast near the Dugit settlement, the army said. The frogman was spotted by an army observation post as he left the sea and approached the security perimeter of the settlement, it said.
The Israeli army then launched an incursion into a nearby Palestinian area, destroying a holiday camp run by the Palestinian youth ministry and another building, a Palestinian official said.
Seven Israelis were also injured in separate attacks in the West Bank, including four soldiers whose jeep was blown off a settlers' road near Ramallah in a blast claimed by the secular Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
A Jewish settler was also ambushed in his car near Tulkarem in the north. Two soldiers who arrived to rescue him were also shot and injured, in an attack claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement.
News of the bus blast came as the Israeli cabinet was gathered for its weekly meeting.
Israeli radio said that Sharon was likely to put off meeting Palestinian finance minister Salam Fayad and interior minister Abdel Razak Yahiya, two moderates on whom Israel is pinning its hopes for reform of the Palestinian Authority, which it accuses of corruption and collusion with armed groups.
After its massive re-occupation of the West Bank failed to stem the bombings, Israel approved controversial new tactics to deter bombers, including banishing relatives to the Gaza Strip and demolishing their family homes.
It was not clear what affect the latest attacks would have on tentative plans for a Palestinian delegation to meet US Secretary of State Colin Powell this week in Washington.
Agencies