MIDDLE EAST: In the fifth such attack in just 48 hours, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed three people at the entrance to a shopping mall in northern Israel yesterday evening. The bomber also died.
The latest spate of suicide bombings is a severe blow to efforts by the United States to implement the road-map peace plan, presented to the two sides two weeks ago. It has also rekindled calls by some Israeli ministers for the exiling of the Palestinian Authority president, Mr Yasser Arafat.
The bomber, whose sex was unknown, set off explosive devices in the town of Afula after being stopped at the entrance to the mall by two security guards, both of whom died in the blast.
Security officials said the bomber came from the northern West Bank city of Jenin, five kilometres south of Afula. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the blast, which also injured 52 people, 13 of them seriously.
Earlier in the day a Palestinian riding a bicycle blew himself up near an army jeep in the Gaza Strip, injuring three Israeli soldiers and killing himself.
After the most devastating of the five attacks - on a bus in Jerusalem early Sunday morning, in which seven people were killed - the Israeli government reimposed a closure on the West Bank.
In an attempt to isolate Mr Arafat further, it also announced that Israeli leaders would not meet foreign dignitaries who also met the Palestinian leader. However, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, said yesterday he intended to continue meeting the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mr Mahmoud Abbas.
While the US has been boycotting Mr Arafat, a spokeswoman for the European Union said EU officials would continue to meet the Palestinian leader, despite the Israeli decision.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Shaul Mofaz, yesterday accused Mr Arafat of encouraging the latest wave of bombings and said that if he "continues to act as a main obstacle to the \ process, and, at the same time, Abu Mazen [Mr Abbas] has the willingness to battle terrorist organisations, there will be no alternative but to think about steps to deport Arafat in the future."
Israeli leaders and defence officials, however, have increasingly begun suggesting that Mr Abbas is unable to take on militant groups, in large part because he is being undermined by Mr Arafat.
Before the war in Iraq many of these same officials predicted the demise of Saddam Hussein would lead to the further marginalisation of the Palestinian leader. But now they are explaining how Mr Arafat's position has actually strengthened, while Mr Abbas, who lacks grassroots support, has been unable to establish himself.
Mr Arafat yesterday condemned the attacks and rejected the Israeli accusations, saying that in the last 10 days the Palestinian Authority had helped thwart a number of planned bombings.
Israeli forensic experts, meanwhile, confirmed yesterday that a body washed up on the Tel Aviv coast last week was that of Omar Sharif, the British citizen who fled the scene of a suicide attack at a pub on the city's promenade last month after his explosive belt malfunctioned. Three people were killed in the attack on the pub, when Sharif's accomplice, a fellow Briton, blew himself up.
In Lebanon, guerrillas loyal to Mr Arafat yesterday clashed with militants in the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp. Seven people were reportedly killed.
The violence, the worst in a year at the Ein el-Hilweh camp, pitted guerrillas of Mr Arafat's Fatah movement against gunmen from the extremist Islamist al-Nour group, a breakaway faction of the radical Asbat al-Ansar group, which is on the US list of terrorist organisations.