Hotel suicide bomber triggers mounting violence in Middle East

JERUSALEM - Another Palestinian suicide bombing has heightened the level of violence sweeping through the Middle East.

The bomber blew himself up outside a Jerusalem hotel yesterday evening wounding three people who were standing at a nearby bus stop.

"Nails and shrapnel flew in all directions. He was blown completely apart," said Jerusalem police chief Miki Levi.

He said police had feared more suicide bombings after the weekend's spate of explosions that killed 25 and wounded 200.

"We still don't know if there was a problem with the bomb or if he detonated it too early," said Levi.

The bomber blew himself up as he crossed a road near the former Hilton Hotel on King David St, metres away from another central Jerusalem hotel where United States peace envoy Anthony Zinni has been staying.

Zinni's mission has been undermined by the bombings and the actions of Israel, which has been staging retaliatory air strikes against Palestinian security installations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes and helicopters launched their fiercest attacks in 14 months of conflict yesterday, firing one missile near Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's West Bank office while he was inside.

Arafat was not hurt, but a 15-year-old bystander and a policeman were killed in Gaza and dozens were wounded in the largest simultaneous air attacks since the start of a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation.

The attacks have prompted US Secretary of State Colin Powell to caution Israel, saying it should be aware of the consequences of any action. But he stopped short of urging Israel to stop the attacks.

The Israeli Army said its warplanes struck only military targets in Gaza and they had flown overhead beforehand to "distance civilians from the area".

In the nearby Palestinian refugee camp, witnesses said a man was critically hurt by Israeli tank fire.

Israeli forces were shooting as Palestinians attacked with grenades, they said.

The Israeli Army denied its tanks had fired in the area.

Making his first public comments since the Israeli offensive began on Monday, Arafat hit back at Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in an interview in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Arafat told CNN television: "He doesn't want a peace process to start."

Sharon's cabinet has branded Arafat's Palestinian Authority a "terror-supporting entity", using language similar to Washington's when it targeted Afghanistan's Taleban rulers.

In Washington, US officials said they had frozen the assets of three groups they believed were linked to the militant Islamic group Hamas.

President George W. Bush said authorities raided offices of a Texas religious foundation, which he said was a fund-raising front for Hamas.

The militant Islamic Jihad group has blamed the US for the Israeli attacks, saying Sharon returned from talks with Bush at the White House "with a green light ... to perpetuate new massacres" against Palestinians.

The European Union has joined the US in acknowledging Israel's right to self-defence against terrorism and calling on Arafat to arrest those responsible for the weekend's attacks. But it also urged Israel against using excessive force.

- REUTERS

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