Palestinian Blast Kills Israeli, Ends a Lull in Suicide Bombings

A bomber blew himself up Wednesday as he was approached by police at a bus stop in northern Israel, killing a police officer. The attack brought an end to the longest period without a suicide bombing this year.

At least two people--another police officer and a civilian--were injured in the explosion. Authorities noted that the toll could have been far higher had police not arrived before the attacker could board a bus.

It was the first suicide bombing in Israel since Aug. 4, when nine people were killed and about 50 injured in an explosion on a bus in northern Israel. Coming on a day in which two other Israelis were found dead after separate attacks, apparently by Palestinians, it seemed to burst any illusion that the relative calm of the last six weeks was a precursor to peace.

“We don’t think this is over yet,” said Supt. Gil Kleiman, a police spokesman. He explained the six-week lull by saying that authorities had simply been successful in foiling numerous attempted attacks.

Not that the lull has been without violence. Several dozen people--soldiers and civilians--have died on both sides, with the heavier toll falling on Palestinians. Most of the violence has been in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are living under Israeli military authority.

Israel on Tuesday rejected a two-stage Palestinian cease-fire proposal, which would have promised to halt attacks only on civilians initially. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the proposal was inadequate because it would allow continued attacks on soldiers, as well as on Jewish settlers in the occupied territories, whom the Palestinians view as combatants.

Peres, however, said he was encouraged by efforts at the United Nations to forge a peace agreement. On Tuesday, representatives of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the U.N. presented what they termed a “road map” to peace in the region.

“I don’t want to sound optimistic,” Peres said in an interview on Israeli TV, “but it is a worthy, perhaps unprecedented effort.”

The attacks Wednesday came a day after a bomb exploded at a Palestinian elementary school south of the West Bank city of Hebron, injuring five children. Both Israeli and Palestinian authorities said they believed the bombing was the work of Jewish militants and was similar to two other incidents in recent months in which bombs were planted at Palestinian schools.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered authorities to step up efforts to find the school bombers, saying: “All forms of terrorism are inhuman and immoral. There’s no good terrorism and bad terrorism.”

Wednesday’s suicide blast occurred shortly before 5 p.m. in the Israeli Arab town of Umm al Fahm, the site of another such attack earlier this year. According to a report on state-run television, the police officers had been on their way to the scene of a car accident when they passed the bus stop and saw a man who looked suspicious. As they approached, the man detonated a bomb.

Kleiman said the dead police officer was a young Israeli, between 18 and 21 years old, who was doing his mandatory national service on the police force rather than in the army.

“We succeeded in foiling an attack, but unfortunately this cost the life of a policeman,” said Yaacov Borowsky, commander of the Northern Police District.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber was not immediately identified.

In an earlier attack Wednesday, one Israeli was killed and another injured when the car they were driving was ambushed near the Jewish settlement of Shaked, west of Jenin in the West Bank, authorities said. The dead man was identified as Yosef Ajami, a construction contractor from Jerusalem.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.

Also Wednesday, the burned body of a 67-year-old Israeli, David Bushbut, was found in a garbage dump in the West Bank town of Azzariyeh, authorities said. He had been reported missing the night before.

Kleiman said investigators were “treating it as a terrorist attack” but not ruling out other motives.