Bus blast toll rises to 12

At least 12 people were killed and dozens were wounded when an apparent suicide bomber blew up a bus in northern Israel during rush hour today.

There are reports that the bomber was a woman.

The bus was packed with Israelis on their way to work and a number of soldiers returning to their base at the beginning of the work week in Israel.

It exploded at the Meron Junction between the towns of Acre and Tsfat, about 35 miles northwest of the West Bank, scattering charred remains across the highway, said Israeli witnesses.

The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bus attack in a statement received in Lebanon by Hezbollah’s television station, Al-Manar.

Hamas said a suicide bomber detonated the bomb as a second retaliatory attack for the death of Hamas’ military leader, Salah Shehadeh, who was killed along with 14 other people in an Israeli bombing of Gaza last month.

The blast came four days after a bomb exploded in the cafeteria at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, killing seven people, including five Americans. Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack.

The attacks in recent days prompted Israel to raid the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday in a hunt for militants. Israeli troops remained in the city on today.

A senior police source said 12 people, including a number of soldiers, were confirmed dead in today’s blast.

David Peretz, head of the emergency ambulance service Magen David Adom in northern Israel, said 37 people were injured, two critically.

Haim Ben-Shimon, a civilian who was nearby at the time of the blast, told Army Radio: "I picked up four dead myself.

"The bus is simply crushed. It looks as if the explosion happened in the centre of the bus."

The bus windows were completely blown out and part of its roof and side were torn open by the force of the blast, with debris scattered all around the area.

Soldiers in flak vests and medical crews swarmed the scene as ambulances took away the injured.

Television footage from nearby hospitals showed several of the injured wearing green army uniforms.

"A soldier came out with his face and uniform covered with blood, and two Arabs from the nearby restaurant gave him first aid," said witness Pinhas Cohen.

The northern police chief, Yaakov Borovsky, said there was a "high probability" that a suicide bomber had carried out the attack.

Ron Ratner, a spokesman for the Egged bus company, said the passengers on bus No 361 from Haifa to Tsfat were regulars, and many were soldiers headed to bases in the north.

Security in Haifa was tight, but a bomber could have boarded at one of the bus stops on the way, he said.

An Israeli official blamed the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, for the attack saying it showed it "feeds on terror".

David Baker, an official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said: "This Palestinian terror must be uprooted and Israel will not relent in its pursuit of, and war against, Palestinian terror."

The blast occurred as Israeli soldiers pressed their siege on Nablus, searching shops and houses for militants Israel says are responsible for recent attacks.

The army entered the town’s Old City early Friday, arresting dozens of Palestinians and destroying at least two houses it said were bomb factories.

Israeli officials said Nablus had replaced Jenin as the main hub of terrorist cells responsible for recent attacks on Israelis.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, soldiers shot dead an armed Palestinian dressed in a wet suit who had apparently swum to an area near the Jewish settlements of Dugit and Alei Sinai, the army said.

Also today, as part of its new policy to demolish homes of suicide bombers and other militants, the army blew up four houses in and around the city of Jenin, Palestinian witnesses said.

In the West Bank city of Hebron, the army blew up another two houses, one of them belonging to a militant who took part on an attack on a Jewish settlement in April in which four people were killed.

The army said in a statement it had destroyed the houses of nine terrorists it said had carried out or planned attacks against Israelis.

Israeli officials had said high-level talks between Sharon and Palestinian Cabinet ministers could be expected later this week, but it was unclear whether the meetings would go ahead as planned after Sunday’s bombing.

Yoram Dori, an adviser to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, said Peres planned to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo tomorrow.