MIDDLE EAST: A Palestinian suicide bomber - a woman student - killed an elderly Israeli man, and injured well over 100 people, when she detonated a large explosive device packed with nails and screws outside a shoe shop at the most crowded crossroads in central Jerusalem yesterday.
The attack came just two days after another suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, and less than a week after a Palestinian gunman shot dead two Israelis at almost the same Jerusalem junction. Initial reports indicated that the female suicide bomber - the first in 16 months of the intifada - was a student at an-Najah University in the West Bank town of Nablus, a Hamas stronghold.
The Israeli government said it held the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, "personally responsible" for the attack. The Palestinian Authority said it "strongly condemned" yesterday's bomb- ing; on Saturday it had called on all factions to halt attacks on Israeli targets.
But Israeli officials noted that, in an address to supporters in Ramallah on Saturday, Mr Arafat made repeated use of the phrase "jihad" - holy war or struggle - in the context of the conflict with Israel, and that he had declared that "a thousand 'martyrs' were marching on Jerusalem", praying that he would "be blessed enough to be one of them".
Aides to the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, claimed the speech was "blatant incitement" by Mr Arafat to his people to become "martyrs" by carrying out suicide attacks. Palestinian officials insist that Israel is to blame for the escalation - and that Mr Arafat cannot control Islamic extremist and other militant factions since Mr Sharon has confined him to Ramallah for almost two months.
While European leaders indicate sympathy for this position, the Bush Administration is taking an ever-firmer stance against Mr Arafat. President Bush hosted a review of US policy on Mr Arafat at the weekend, at which Vice-President Dick Cheney reportedly called for the immediate severing of all formal US contacts with him.
Mr Bush opted to stop short of that, but he is set to place the military wing of Mr Arafat's Fatah faction on the US list of terror groups, may also put Mr Arafat's Force 17 bodyguard unit on that list, and is hinting that a full severing of ties to Mr Arafat and the Palestinian Authority is being contemplated.
Mr Arafat "must make a full effort to rout out terror in the Middle East", Mr Bush said on Friday. Publicly blaming Mr Arafat for the first time for ordering the arms shipment intercepted by Israel aboard the Karine A in the Red Sea on January 3rd, Mr Bush added: "Obviously we're very disappointed in him."
Israeli officials described yesterday's Jerusalem bombing as "one of the biggest blasts to date", with 60 shops damaged and close to 200 people hospitalised - four of them with serious wounds, but dozens suffering from more minor injuries and shock. "We are in a war that won't end in a few days and that will unfortunately cost many victims," the Mayor of Jerusalem, Mr Ehud Olmert, said.
The dead man was named as Mr Pinhas Toktali (81). Jerusalem's police chief, Mr Mickey Levy, suffered a heart attack soon after supervising the evacuation of the wounded to hospital.
Among those hurt was Mr Mark Sokolow, an American tourist who narrowly escaped death when working on the 38th floor of Tower Two at the World Trade Centre on September 11th. Mr Sokolow, his wife and two sons were all lightly hurt in yesterday's blast.
•Several Palestinian inmates - including Islamic Jihad and Fatah militants wanted by Israel - were freed or escaped from Bethlehem jail last night, after their families stormed the prison.