ISRAEL: Voilence surged in the Middle East again yesterday, with two Israelis killed by a suicide bomber who blew himself up in a busy shopping mall in the centre of the country, and seven Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Police at the scene of the blast, in the city of Kfar Sava, which is close to the West Bank town of Qalqilya, said they believed one of the dead men was a security guard who had prevented the bomber from entering an electronics store in the mall. Over 30 people were injured, one seriously.
The militant Islamic Jihad group admitted responsibility for the attack, and named the bomber as Nabil Sawalha (20), a resident of the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus. He was killed in the blast.
"I went to see if I could help," said an eyewitness, who gave his name as Ron. "I saw parts of a body near the street and the remains of the electronics store."
Earlier yesterday, two Palestinians were killed in Nablus when the Suzuki vehicle they were travelling in blew up. Eyewitnesses said the car had been hit by a missile fired by a helicopter, and Palestinian officials blamed Israel, saying it had conducted another assassination.
Later, however, a senior Palestinian security officer said an Israeli aircraft flying low over the area had detonated a bomb inside the vehicle by remote control.
A crowd which had gathered around the burning car chanted "There is no God but Allah". One of the men killed in the blast was identified as Mohammed Sadr (37), a member of the military wing of Hamas.
In the Gaza Strip, five Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in three separate incidents yesterday. The bodies of three men, who were not armed, were found early yesterday morning in central Gaza, after the army had fired at figures approaching the tightly guarded border fence between Israel and the Strip overnight on Sunday.
A Palestinian policeman was shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern town of Rafah yesterday, and Palestinians said a 36-year-old man, who was not armed, was shot and killed by troops near a Jewish settlement in the Strip.
As rescue teams rushed to the scene of the Kfar Sava suicide bombing yesterday evening, the Israeli parliament was voting to install hawkish ex-army chief Mr Shaul Mofaz as Israel's new Defence Minister, following the Labour Party's departure from the ruling coalition.
Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, who succeeded in staving off three no-confidence motions yesterday in the parliament, continued his efforts to build a narrow government. But he appeared to rule out former premier Mr Benjamin Netanyahu's condition for accepting the post of foreign minister - that Mr Sharon call early elections - when he told his Likud party that "taking the nation to immediate elections would be irresponsible."