Islamic Jihad says it carried out suicide bombing

The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility today for a suicide bombing in central Israel that killed a 65-year-old woman and violated a week-long ceasefire.

The group threatened more violence if Israel does not meet its demand for a mass release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

“Release the prisoners or the consequences will be grave,” the group said.

It identified the bomber as 22-year-old Ahmed Yehyia from the village of Kufr Rai in the northern West Bank.

Israeli police said yesterday’s blast levelled a house in Kfar Yavetz, an Israeli village near the West Bank, killing a 65-year-old woman. The remains of a young man were also found in the wreckage, apparently Yehyia.

It was the first such attack since the Palestinian militants declared a ceasefire on June 29.

While the truce has been accepted by most Palestinian groups, some renegade groups within Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction have rejected the ceasefire.

Last week, one of these groups claimed responsibility for shooting dead a Bulgarian construction worker near the West Bank town of Jenin.

Despite sporadic violence, the truce has largely held.

Palestinian and Israeli Cabinet members yesterday discussed a proposal for the Palestinian prime minister to visit Israel’s parliament to lobby for a large scale prisoner release, an effort to resolve a rapidly escalating crisis over the prisoners held by Israel.

Israel’s Cabinet approved guidelines on Sunday for freeing several hundred prisoners, but said members of radical groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad and anyone involved in attacks on Israelis would not be freed.

Israel holds about 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the new measures call for the release of only about 400 prisoners.

The Cabinet said the move was aimed at strengthening the position of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his allies who support the ceasefire. But Palestinian officials said the release must be expanded.

The truce began on June 30 with Hamas and Islamic Jihad promising to halt attacks against Israel for three months and a militia associated with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah vowing to halt attacks for six months.

Israel responded by pulling out of parts of Gaza and the West Bank town of Bethlehem, and has promised further withdrawals in the future.

A senior Israeli security source said, however, that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were exploiting the ceasefire to rebuild an infrastructure largely destroyed in almost three years of fighting.

More than 2,400 Palestinians and 800 Israelis were killed in the fighting that broke out in September 2000 and buried the last Mideast peace effort.