Palestinian bomb kills soldier and injures 20

A FEMALE soldier was killed and 20 people wounded when a bomb exploded in Tel Aviv yesterday, in the first such attack by militants inside Israel for nearly four months.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the attack was carried out "under the patronage" of a decision by the World Court which ruled Friday that his government's West Bank separation barrier was illegal. Mr Sharon vowed that construction work would continue on the wall despite the ruling.

Emergency services rushed to the scene of the blast, which struck near a long-distance bus stop in Israel's commercial capital at around 7am local time (4am Irish time), and sped the badly injured to hospital.

Military sources later confirmed that the victim was a woman soldier but said the 20-year-old's name was being withheld until next of kin had been informed.

Mr Sharon's order to continue constructing the separation barrier followed intra-ministerial consultations some 48 hours after the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its non-binding verdict, a statement from the premier's office said.

"Prime Minister Sharon directed that construction of the separation fence continue in accordance with the guidelines determined in the high court of justices decision on June 30 and that the struggle against the opinion of the ICJ be continued by all diplomatic and legal means," the statement said

Judges at Israel's highest court ruled late last month that part of the barrier a montage of electric fencing, barbed wire and concrete wall should be rerouted north of Jerusalem because it infringed the rights of some 35,000 Palestinian inhabitants.

"The ruling totally ignores the reason behind the construction of the security barrier which is Palestinian terrorism," Sharon told his ministers.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement, swiftly claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman said the bombing was carried out to avenge crimes committed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Nablus and in the Gaza Strip, where troops recently carried out deadly raids.

"The murderous act that was carried out this morning was the first to occur under the patronage of the world court's decision," Sharon said. "What the judges of the court refused to see, the Palestinians wasted no time in showing this morning, with the murder and maiming of innocent people."

Arafat, speaking before confirmation that the dead woman was a soldier, said that "we have always these acts" but suggested that it could have been perpetrated by the Israelis.

"You know who is behind these acts," he told reporters. "Europe knows it, the Americans know it, the Israelis know it."

The last attack on Israeli soil was on March 14, when 10 Israelis and two suicide bombers were killed in the southern port of Ashdod.