Israeli military strike likely after bus blast

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian suicide car bombing which killed 14 bus passengers in northern Israel threatened to draw a new Israeli military response.

"There will be a response but it may not be immediate," an Israeli political source said after the bombing, 50km north of Tel Aviv early yesterday (NZT).

"It would likely be a pinpointed response."

A senior Israeli Government source said a possible military withdrawal from the West Bank city of Hebron would have to be re-examined in light of the attack, despite US pressure to ease an Army clamp on Palestinian cities.

"We have to see where the terrorist came from, what the support infrastructure was, and whether it had anything to do with Palestinian cities where we might be considering redeployment," the source said.

In the attack, a Palestinian bomber drove a car carrying 100kg of explosives into the rear of a bus as it stopped to pick up passengers along a highway in northern Israel close to Hadera, setting off a series of blasts that engulfed the vehicle in flames.

"There were explosions non-stop," said Michael Yitzhaki, a passenger who escaped. "The flames ate up the bus with amazing speed ... We didn't manage to get inside to save anyone. It was difficult watching people who we couldn't help any more."

A few passengers managed to escape, some by crawling out of the windows. More than 50 people were wounded.

The car apparently came from the Jenin area, in the northern West Bank, police commander Yaakov Borofsky told Israeli Radio.

A Jenin curfew meant to thwart such attacks was recently lifted.

Borofsky and other police officials said there may have been two suicide bombers in the car.

"The explosion was so strong that I fell to the floor," said Michael Itzhaki, a passenger who was sitting behind the bus driver.

"I looked back and quickly got off the bus, then it burst into flames.

"We succeeded in getting one soldier off the bus," he added.

"Two minutes after that more explosions started ... and we couldn't get on the bus because it was on fire.

"Some of the soldiers climbed out the windows and survived."

Palestinian suicide bombers have killed scores of Israelis in a two-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation.

Nearly a dozen such attacks have struck the northern highway running through Karkur Junction, dotted with Jewish and Arab towns.

The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility in a statement issued in Beirut.

It said the attack was made to avenge the assassination of its founder seven years ago and Israeli raids which have killed many Palestinian civilians as well as combatants.

Israeli security sources said the bomber was believed to have been a resident of the West Bank city of Jenin.

Israel reoccupied large parts of the West Bank in June after a series of suicide bombings.

The US Administration, keen on shoring up Arab support for a possible war on Iraq, has since urged Israel to ease the crippling curfews and closures.

US President George W. Bush, who has sent envoy William Burns to the region, condemned the bombing but said it would not derail peace efforts.

Burns, on a Middle East tour, is due in Israel tomorrow and is expected to ask both sides to restore calm.

"The President condemns the most recent attack in Israel. It's another reminder of how it's so important for peace to be pursued and for terror to be stopped," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

A State Department spokesman criticised Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority for being "lax in stopping terrorism", but also urged Israel to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties in its military operations.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana denounced the bombing, demanding "more commitment to re-establish a fruitful cooperation that should lead to dialogue and peace".

Israeli officials held the Palestinian Authority responsible for the attack, though Arafat has always denied such charges.

"You know that the decision of the Palestinian leadership is that it is opposed to attacks against Palestinian and Israeli civilians. We reject such attacks against civilians," Arafat said outside his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The bus attack was the first Palestinian bombing in Israel since October 10, when a bomber blew himself up at a bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing an elderly woman.

- AGENCIES

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