Seven die in Israel bus ambush

Seven people were killed and 25 injured today when Palestinians detonated a roadside bomb near an armoured bus and then sprayed automatic fire at passengers as they tried to flee, police said.

Witnesses said the gunmen were dressed as Israeli soldiers.

The gunmen fled the scene and were being pursued by army helicopters.

It was the first deadly attack on Israeli civilians since June 20.

Medics who rushed to the entrance of the Emmanuel settlement in the northern West Bank quoted the injured as saying that after the initial explosion, several smaller ones went off, followed by shooting.

Witnesses said the attackers, about three in all, were dressed in Israel army uniforms and opened fire as the bus passengers fled. The gunmen escaped in the direction of Nablus, the report said.

Abraham Cohen, security officer at Emmanuel, said he arrived at the scene a few minutes after the explosion.

‘‘The shooting was still going on and shots were fired at my car. I was lucky to get out of my car before it was hit,’’ he said.

Seven people were killed, said Shahar Ayalon, the police commander in the northern West Bank. A military source said 25 people were injured.

Israel blamed the Palestinian Authority for the attack.

‘‘Israeli civilians continue to be the choice targets of Palestinian terrorists,’’ said David Baker, a spokesman for the government, calling the attack ‘‘further proof that the Palestinian Authority considers terrorism a primary mode of operation.’’

No reaction was immediately available from the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian officials have said that with Israel in control of most of the cities and towns in the West Bank since last month, their security services are powerless to prevent attacks.

An ambush on a bus in the same area last December killed 11 Israelis. The last attack on Israelis occurred June 20, when a gunman killed five Israelis in the Jewish settlement of Itamar, near Nablus in the north West Bank.

The lull in attacks was widely seen in Israel as evidence that the policy of reoccupying the Palestinian Authorities’ autonomous zones was the best method for preventing further attacks on Israelis.

Emmanuel, a largely ultra-Orthodox settlement, is located between Nablus and the West Bank town of Qalqilya.

Israel’s Channel Two television said the injured were not only from the bus, but from a vehicle that was driving ahead of it.