Road map to peace in crisis after tit-for-tat killings

THE US-backed road map to peace in the Middle East was in crisis last night after a suicide bomber killed at least 16 on a Jerusalem bus and seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza City.

Seventy people were wounded in the Jerusalem bombing, the deadliest in three months, and 30 were hurt in the Gaza missile attack.

The violence was a setback for US president George Bush, who only last Wednesday launched his peace plan to end the violence and create a Palestinian state by 2005.

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, had pledged to support the plan at a landmark three-way summit with the US president in Jordan.

The suicide bombing in central Jerusalem also underscored Israel's vulnerability and the ineffectiveness of Palestinian efforts to persuade the militants to give up terrorism.

The bus bombing came a day after Israeli helicopters attacked a car carrying Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a political leader of the Hamas militant group. He survived with minor injuries and two bystanders were killed. Hamas had threatened bloody revenge, and yesterday Rantisi said the bus bombing was "an answer" to Mr Sharon, CNN reported. A Hamas website later said the group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing.

Hagit Stein, who works at a shoe shop nearby, said that she had just got off the bus before it blew upbehind her: "I didn't know where to go, where to run. I don't believe I'm so lucky."

Chen Knafo, an security guard, said: "I saw a girl, about 15 or 16, who was blown from the bus. I took her aside and gave her first aid until a medic came." Police said the bomber and 16 victims were killed. Seventy people were wounded, including eight in a critical condition.

Less than an hour later, Israeli helicopters over Gaza City fired two missiles at a car, killing two members of the Hamas military wing, Tito Massoud, aged 35, and Soheil Abu Nahel, aged 29. Their Fiat was stuck in a rush-hour traffic jam and drove onto the pavement in a bid to escape, witnesses said. The missiles turned the car into a burning ball of wreckage and hundreds of residents rushed to the scene.