Bombing, bus blast blow Mid East peace moves wide apart

JERUSALEM - The killing of two Israelis in a roadside bombing and a blast on a Tel Aviv bus ended a brief lull in Israeli-Palestinian violence and undercut US President Bill Clinton's bid to revive peacemaking before he leaves office.

Two Israelis died and two were wounded yesterday when Palestinians detonated a roadside bomb hidden near a fence dividing Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Earlier in the day, two pipe bombs exploded on a Tel Aviv bus, wounding 14 people.

At the White House, President Clinton said the attacks were a sign militants would try to sabotage his efforts to mediate an end to decades of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed before he steps down on January 20.

At least 345 people have been killed in a three-month-old Palestinian intifada (uprising) that erupted in the vacuum of deadlocked peace talks. Most of the dead were Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs.

Clinton said the sides were closer than ever to an agreement, and he was awaiting a formal Palestinian response to his proposals on crucial issues such as the future of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements and borders.

"We are just waiting," he said. "The Israelis have said they will meet on these conditions within the parameters that I laid out if the Palestinians will, and the Palestinians are talking with the other Arabs and we will just see what happens.

"I think that if it can be resolved at all, it can be resolved in the next three weeks. It's not going to get any easier. This is by far the closest we have ever been."

The three-month wave, the worst violence between Israelis and Palestinians for years, appeared to be waning before yesterday's attacks.

But the bombings, followed by a spate of shooting attacks in the West Bank, indicated the respite was over.

The Israeli Army reported Palestinian gunmen seriously wounded an Israeli driver in the West Bank and that gunmen fired at an Israeli bus driving near Hebron.

It said Palestinian gunmen also shot at Israeli cars and Army jeeps and positions in the northern West Bank and that troops returned fire in several instances.

Israel tightened a closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, preventing Palestinians from moving between West Bank cities and barring several thousand Palestinians from working in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office said the move was a security measure after the bomb attacks. But officials have said in the past that such closures provide a breeding ground for militants by causing Palestinians economic hardship.

Barak and Arafat had been expected to hold a summit in Egypt yesterday. But the meeting was cancelled after the Palestinian Authority sent an ambiguous response to Washington raising numerous reservations on key elements of the US plan.

- REUTERS

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