MIDDLE EAST: So fierce were the flames leaping from the burning bus, hit by a booby-trapped car packed with 100 kg of explosives near the Israeli town of Hadera yesterday, that police and rescue workers could not get near the vehicle to try and help the passengers trapped inside. At least 14 passengers were killed and more than 50 injured and the toll of dead and injured is expected to rise.
"A car full of explosives drew up next to the bus and blew up," said one first-aid worker, referring to the attack in which a jeep, driven by two suicide bombers, hit the bus. "Then the bus exploded into flames, trapping a lot of people on board."
Firefighters spent precious minutes trying to extinguish the blazing bus, from which a pall of black- grey smoke billowed, spiralling skywards and covering the area. When the fire was out, all that remained of the bus, which was travelling from Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel to Tel Aviv, was a blackened metal skeleton.
Minutes after the attack, ambulances descended on the area and first-aid workers - well practised in responding to bomb attacks - went to work, treating some at the scene and immediately evacuating others to a hospital in the nearby coastal town of Hadera.
"The explosion was so strong that I fell to the floor," said Mr Michael Yitzhaki, a passenger who was sitting behind the driver. "I looked back and quickly got off the bus, then it burst into flames. We succeeded in getting one soldier off the bus. Two minutes after that more explosions started . . . and we couldn't get on the bus because it was on fire. Some of the soldiers climbed out the windows and survived."
It was not immediately clear how the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, might respond. After the last suicide attack, on a bus in Tel Aviv in September which killed six people, he dispatched bulldozers to demolish the compound of the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
After destroying every building, except for the office in which Mr Arafat was holed up with his aides and a few dozen militants, Israel was forced to cease the demolition work and withdraw its bulldozers and tanks under intense pressure from the US, which feared the operation could undermine its plans for Saddam Hussein.
Mr Sharon has toyed with the idea in the past of deporting the Palestinian leader from the territories, but under pressure from the centre-left Labour Party, which is a senior member of his national unity government, he has so far held back. Senior security officials have advised him that such a move might boost Mr Arafat's status and further sow chaos in the occupied territories.
In the West Bank, it appears Israel has few military options it hasn't tried. Mr Sharon has spoken recently, though, of a possible move against the militant Islamic Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip and there has been some speculation that a bombing which claimed multiple casualties might serve as the pretext.
Mr Sharon, who met President Bush in Washington a few days ago, will be acutely aware of the US request that he refrain from any escalation on the Palestinian front ahead of a possible US campaign against Iraq.
The latest suicide attack comes as special US envoy Mr William Burns is touring the region. Some commentators suggested yesterday that Islamic militants, bent on wrecking any diplomatic progress, had planned the attack to coincide with his trip. Mr Burns is expected to hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Guardian service adds: An Israeli army commander has been relieved of his post after being charged with torturing a Palestinian boy in Bethlehem while interrogating him as to the whereabouts of his father.
Lieut Col Geva Saguy is awaiting a court martial on several charges, including ordering the boy to strip naked, holding a burning paper under his testicles, threatening to sexually assault him with a bottle and threatening to shoot him.