Sixteen people were killed and dozens wounded early on Tuesday in a bomb attack on a rush-hour Israeli bus in southern Jerusalem, Israeli public radio said.
Medical sources said five people were in critical condition after the blast aboard the bus travelling from the Jewish community of Gilo on Jerusalem’s southern outskirts toward the city centre.
The suspected suicide attack came as US President George Bush was preparing to announce his strategy to relaunch the Middle East peace process after 20 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
Israeli security forces have been on maximum alert in Jerusalem fearing Palestinian attacks, and the latest strike comes just two days after Israel began constructing a controversial fence along the West Bank.
It also comes a week after a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing a teenager and wounding at least 15 other people at a restaurant north of Tel Aviv.
A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber on Monday blew himself up near where Israel has begun building the security wall to separate Israel from the Palestinian territories.
Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo condemned the suicide attack, saying it would only give Israel further reason to ”escalate its aggression” against the Palestinians.
”The Palestinian Authority condemns this attack,” Abed Rabbo said.
”The only beneficiary of this (suicide) operation is (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and the occupation. Israel will use this operation to escalate its aggression against the Palestinian
Authority,” he said.
”This operation will only help Sharon’s steps, especially in building this wall along the West Bank,” he added. – Sapa-AFP