Four killed in suicide blast at station

Four people were killed today and 30 others were wounded when a suicide bomber donated explosives as passengers disembarked from a train in the northern Israeli coastal town of Nahariya.

The blast was the deadliest of several Palestinian attacks today and threw into question possible truce talks aimed at ending more than 11 months of Mideast violence.

In the West Bank, a Palestinian gunman sprayed automatic rifle fire on a van carrying Israeli teachers to schools.

Two Israelis - the driver and a woman teacher - were killed and four teachers were injured in the shooting in the Jordan Valley, police said.

Also, an apparent car bomb exploded next to a bus at a busy crossroad in central Israel, setting the bus on fire. One person inside the car was killed - apparently a Palestinian bomber - Israeli radio and television stations reported.

Israel responded to the surge of attacks with helicopter missile strikes in the West Bank city of Ramallah, hammering a building belonging to the Fatah movement, headed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The building was badly damaged, but no-one was hurt.

Arafat and Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres have been attempting to arrange truce talks for nearly three weeks, but the daily violence has undermined the efforts.

The two are expected to meet in coming days, but today’s events again raised political tensions.

The Israeli government blamed Arafat for failing to halt attacks against Israelis.

‘‘The Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to stop these bombers, or the people who are behind them, and therefore again we will have to do what it takes to defend our citizens,’’ said Israeli spokesman Arye Mekel.

At the train station, the bomber blew himself up near a platform as the train pulled in and soldiers and civilians were stepping off.

‘‘I was standing nearby and I heard a great explosion. It took me a minute to come to my senses and then I saw glass everywhere and I saw people running like crazy,’’ witness Avi Levy told Israeli television. ‘‘People were crying and hysterical.’’

Police and ambulances rushed to the scene of the carnage to take the wounded to hospitals.

More than 30 people were hurt, though most had relatively light injuries, the Nahariya hospital said.

The town is on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, six miles from the border with Lebanon.

The radical Islamic group Hamas, which has carried out many of the deadliest attacks against Israel in recent years, claimed responsibility in phone calls to Arab television channels.

Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantisi would not say whether his group carried out the attack, but he praised the bombing.

‘‘Israel should know that it will pay the price for its crimes,’’ Rantisi said. ‘‘The Palestinians have the full right to continue to fight the Zionist occupation until liberation.’’

In other violence, Israeli troops fired on three Palestinians approaching a border fence in the Gaza Strip, killing one, the Israeli army said.

A second Palestinian was wounded, a Palestinian hospital said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet was to debate a plan to set up a military ‘‘buffer zone’’ between Israel and the West Bank in a bid to prevent further infiltrations by Palestinian militants.

The area would be off-limits to Palestinians except those who live there, and permit troops to arrest intruders.

Palestinian cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the plan would make life intolerable for Palestinians living and working in the closed zones.

Israel has promised that the Palestinians who live and work in these zones will continue to do so and will receive special passes for the purpose.