A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber - possibly a woman - detonated explosives in Jerusalem's main shopping street today, killing one person and wounding up to 40 others.
The blast on Jaffa Road, the third attack on an Israeli city centre in less than a week, raised the spectre of fresh Israeli retaliation
It was likely to increase Israeli and US pressure on Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat to do more to rein in militants behind the mounting wave of bloodshed.
Israeli police said the bomber and another person were killed in the explosion, and they were checking the possibility that one of the bodies, that of a woman, was the suicide bomber.
If correct, it would be the first time a female suicide bomber had carried out an attack in Israel. Israeli media reported that the second body was an elderly man who was carrying an Israeli identification card.
"The current assessment is that this was a woman suicide bomber. We've had intelligence warnings on woman attackers, albeit not recently", Deputy Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra told Reuters.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack. In a statement it called on the United States, which last week postponed a truce mission by its envoy Gen Anthony Zinni, to send him back to the region without delay.
Two days ago a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and wounded 25 people in Tel Aviv. Last Tuesday, a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli women on Jaffa Road, near the scene of Sunday's bombing. Police shot him dead.