A Palestinian suicide bomber, disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, blew himself up outside a school in central Jerusalem yesterday, injuring about a dozen Israelis with a bomb that included nails, screws and shards of metal. The bomber's head rolled into the playground of the school, an eyewitness said, where police covered it up so that the children would not see it.
The blast was the fifth in two days in the city, and took place just a two-minute walk from the Sbarro pizza restaurant, where 15 civilians were killed in a suicide bombing last month.
Although bearded and wearing the unremarkable skullcap, black trousers and plain white shirt of an ultra-Orthodox Jew, the bomber attracted the suspicions of two Israeli border policemen, who approached him as he walked along the Street of the Prophets shortly before 8 a.m. "When he saw us, he turned his back on us, and reached into a pocket," said Mr Guy Mughrabi, one of the two policemen. Although the bomber is believed to have been a Hamas militant from Ramallah in the West Bank, aides to Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, put the blame on the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, asserting that the PA was doing nothing to prevent such attacks and was allowing the broadcast of incitement against Israel in Palestinian media.
Mr Arafat, at a press conference alongside the visiting EU foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, said he was "sad about the civilians who were injured" and that he opposed such attacks.
Mr Solana, visiting the scene of the blast, was heckled by some passers-by - one of whom loudly urged him to "take your suitcases and get out of here". This seemed to be a reflection of the growing feeling of isolation felt by Israelis in this on-going conflict, a sense reinforced by the waves of anti-Israeli sentiment emanating from the UN conference against racism in Durban.
The Bikur Holim hospital is along the street from the bombing site; Jerusalem's Mayor, Mr Ehud Olmert, said last night that the bomber had actually tried to enter the hospital, but had been blocked by a security guard.
The attack followed four bombings in Jerusalem on Monday, and came as Mr Solana attempted to arrange a meeting between Mr Arafat and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres.
Meanwhile yesterday, Mr Peres's Labour Party was choosing a new leader - in a close but uninspiring race between the rather grizzled Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, and the more polished Knesset Speaker, Mr Avraham Burg.
Labour is the largest party in parliament, but is expected to decline markedly whenever elections are next held since the Oslo peace process it championed has collapsed so violently.
Thus the new leader faces the daunting challenge of reviving what was once the natural party of government, now that its voters and many of its leaders have lost faith in the viability of the central plank of its platform - peacemaking with Mr Arafat.