Nine die in bus blast, three die in shooting

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

Three hours later, three people died when a Palestinian attacker opened fire just outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, sparking a gun battle with police.

The dead were an Israeli security guard, an Arab bystander and the gunman.

The bus attacked in northern Israel was packed with people on their way to work, including a number of soldiers returning to their base at the beginning of the work week in Israel.

The explosion happened at the Meron Junction near the town of Tsfat.

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

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

The blast came four days after a bomb exploded in a cafeteria at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, killing seven people, including five Americans.

Hamas claimed responsibility for that bombing as well.

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 Sunday.

Police spokesman Yaron Zamir said the nine people who died in today’s bus bombing included a number of soldiers.

Police believed the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, but were still examining the evidence, he said.

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

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

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

The windows were completely blown out of the bus, 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.

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

He said security in Haifa is tight, but that a bomber could have boarded at one of the bus stops on the way.

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 Palestinian leadership condemned the bombing, but also accused Sharon of ‘‘war crimes’’ for the Israeli army’s mass detentions, home demolitions and curfews imposed on Palestinians.

In the Jerusalem shooting, the Palestinian gunmen used a pistol to fire at close range on a truck belonging to Israel’s main phone company, Bezeq.

A security guard was killed and the driver was injured, police said.

Seconds later, Israeli police began firing, witnesses said.

The gunman was killed by police, and an Arab bystander was hit and killed by crossfire, Israeli officials said.

Six people were hurt in the shooting, outside the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City.

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 Sunday, the army pressed its new policy of demolishing homes of suicide bombers and other militants, blowing up nine houses in West Bank four in the Jenin area, three in Nablus and two in Hebron.

The army said the houses all belonged to militants who carried out or orchestrated attacks against Israelis.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers kept up its 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 on Friday, arresting dozens of Palestinians and destroying at least two houses it said were bomb factories.

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

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres also planned to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Monday, Peres adviser Yoram Dori said yesterday.