Palestinian blows himself up after police challenge

A PALESTINIAN blew himself up after police challenged him at a bus stop in northern Israel during evening rush hour yesterday. One policeman was killed and two people were wounded.

The bombing, the first suicide attack in six weeks, came in a new burst of violence a day after Israel turned down a Palestinian offer to halt attacks on civilians in Israel as the first stage of a gradual truce.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast near the Israeli Arab town of Umm el-Fahm. Mahmoud Zahar, a spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas, welcomed the attack, saying that “the Palestinians have every right to fight against the occupation”.

The assailant detonated the explosives as he approached a police van that had pulled up at the bus stop to check him, officials said. The officers had acted on a tip that a suspicious-looking man with a bag was at a bus stop.

The assailant’s original plan apparently was to blow himself up on the bus, police said.

An officer and a bystander were wounded in the attack.

It was the first suicide bombing since August 4, when a Hamas member blew himself up on an Israeli bus, killing nine passengers and bystanders.

Earlier yesterday, an Israeli motorist was killed in a West Bank shooting claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The burned body of a Jewish settler was found in a West Bank garbage dump, apparently a victim of Palestinian militants.

It marked the first time since August 5 that Israeli civilians were killed in the West Bank.

Also yesterday, Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian and wounded a second man in the West Bank village of Tamoun.

The army said the two tried to run down soldiers with a car and fire on them. The mayor said the two were ambushed. He said the dead man was wanted by Israel and was active in the Al Aqsa militia.

In the northern West Bank, the body of a Palestinian man was found in an olive grove. The man was a suspected collaborator with Israel and had been shot in the chest, residents said.