Palestinian militants made their intention of wrecking the already fading hopes of reviving the shattered Middle East peace process violently clear over the weekend, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing nine Israelis. Peter Hirschberg reports from Jerusalem.
For now, they appear to have been successful. Shortly after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, postponed his trip to the US, where he was to meet with President George W. Bush tomorrow to discuss his reservations concerning the road map peace plan, almost certainly delaying its implementation further.
Last night, the Israeli government also decided to reimpose a closure on the West Bank and other restrictions on the Palestinians it had begun lifting as part of initial gestures requested by the US.
In the more lethal of the two attacks, a Hamas bomber wearing a skull cap to disguise himself as a religious Jew, got on a bus in north Jerusalem at around 5.45 a.m. and exploded a bomb as the vehicle was pulling off, killing six Israelis and one Palestinian, and wounding 20.
The scorched interior of the bus was covered in blood and body parts. The body of one man lay slumped from a window.
"Suddenly there was an explosion. I was thrown backwards. Then I heard screams. I saw four dead people slumped in their chairs," said Mr Yonatan Rafael, a soldier on the bus. Mr Rafael said passengers began shouting at the driver to open the door and get out. "He didn't move. Then I saw that half of his leg had been blown off."
Mr Sharon last night consulted with his cabinet but was not expected to accept the demand of several ministers to deport Palestinian Authority President Mr Yasser Arafat.
Mr Sharon knows the American demand - voiced again during a recent trip by Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell - that the Palestinian leader not be harmed.
Industry and Trade Minister, Mr Ehud Olmert, who is close to the prime minister, said exiling the Palestinian leader would be counterproductive for Israel.
"Arafat will go from capital to capital in Europe, accompanied by the international media. That would not he helpful to us."
The attack was the fourth in just 12 hours and appeared to be a message by militants not only to the Israelis and Americans, but also to new Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas, who has spoken out against the armed nature of the uprising.
On Saturday evening, a bomber blew himself up in the West Bank city of Hebron, killing two Jewish settlers. Just hours later, as Mr Sharon and Mr Abbas were meeting, two armed Palestinians were shot dead by troops as they tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Yesterday, 30 minutes after the bus attack, another Palestinian blew himself up at an army road block north of Jerusalem, killing only himself, apparently after having failed to penetrate the city.
Israeli officials say the latest spate of attacks is aimed not only at derailing the new peace plan but is also an indication of the inability of Mr Abbas to curb the armed militias. Mr Olmert said it looked "very doubtful" that the new Palestinian government, sworn in a few weeks ago, would or could launch a "war on terror".
But Palestinian Minister Mr Ghassan Khatib pointed to Israel's non-acceptance of the road map. "The way out of this violence, which is hitting both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, is when the two sides, including the Israeli government, accept that the only game in town is the road map," he said. The meeting in Jerusalem between Mr Sharon and Mr Abbas was unproductive with both sides insisting on measures the other must take for the map to be implemented.
Mr Abbas insisted Israel must formally accept the plan, while Mr Sharon wanted the Palestinian authorities to dismantle armed militias first.