by Yoav Lemmer
PETAKH TIKVAH, Israel, Dec 25 (AFP) - Five people were killed Thursday in the first suicide attack in Israel in nearly three months, shortly after a top Palestinian militant was assassinated in the Gaza Strip, as the Holy Land exploded in violence on Christmas Day.
The bomber and his four victims -- three women and a man -- died in an attack on a bus stop in Petakh Tikvah, on the northeastern outskirts of Tel Aviv, which also left 15 others injured, police said.
It was the first suicide attack in Israel since a female Islamic Jihad bomber killed herself and 22 others at a restaurant in the northern city of Haifa on October 4. It marks an end to the longest lull in suicide attacks since the start of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000.
Anonymous telephone callers told AFP the attack was carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The blast took place on the main Jabotinsky Street thoroughfare, bringing rush hour traffic to a complete standstill. At least 25 ambulances rushed to the scene amid fears that the toll could be much higher.
The head of the suicide bomber was blown by the force of the explosion onto a bridge some 40 meters (yards) away, while the bus stop sign was coated in blood.
Israeli defense sources, cited by public television, noted that the PFLP headquarters is in Damascus and warned that Israel would respond militarily if Syrian responsibility were determined.
Israel responded to the Haifa attack with an air strike on a site close to Damascus which it said was used to train Palestinians -- an accusation strenuously denied by Syrian President Bashir al-Assad's regime.
In the aftermath of the Tel Aviv attack, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz imposed a total closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The latest incidents came in rapid succession during the early evening and followed an earlier incident in which a Palestinian man with an explosive charge strapped to his body was gunned down by soldiers as he approached a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip.
Witnesses in Gaza City said Islamic Jihad military leader Moqled Hamid was killed when a missile fired by a helicopter gunship struck the car in which he was traveling.
Four other Palestinians, including two other Jihad activists, were also killed and 13 others wounded, Palestinian sources said.
Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Hamid had been planning a massive attack in the Gaza Strip.
"We have hit one of the leaders of Islamic Jihad who was planning the execution of a massive attack in Gaza," he said.
Senior government spokesman Avi Pazner said the violence highlighted the need for a resumption of high-level talks with the Palestinians "to avoid a dangerous political vacuum".
"Israel will take all measures that it deems essential to ensure its security, but there is an urgent need to relaunch negotiations at the highest level, for without it a dangerous political vacuum will emerge," Pazner told AFP.
"The present situation demonstrates clearly the danger from not having negotiations."
Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei has still to meet with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, since being installed as premier last month. A much talked of summit has been repeatedly put off.
He condemned both the Israeli air raid and the suicide attack.
"The prime minister and the government condemn the cycle of violence and counter-violence, of which the latest episode is the murder of five citizens in Gaza by Israeli helicopters and an attack on a bus stop that has left people dead and wounded tonight in Tel Aviv," a Palestinian cabinet statement said.
"Regretting the continuation of the cycle of assassinations, liquidations and attacks against civilians on both sides, the prime minister calls for a stop to this bloody circle and the conclusion of a reciprocal cease fire," it added.
Qorei also called for the "immediate resumption of applying the roadmap," the internationally drafted peace plan unveiled last summer.
A joint statement later issued by the government, Palestinian parliament and Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation also condemned the "crazy escalation".
It urged intervention from the international community and the four co-sponsors of the Middle East peace roadmap -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- to bring an "end to civilian bloodshed on both sides."
Senior Islamic Jihad official Khaled el-Batsh told AFP Israel had "committed a new crime" with the attack in Gaza "that will not go unpunished".
The latest round of violence took place after Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah told some 3,000 worshippers packed into Bethlehem's Saint Catherine basilica at the Church of the Nativity that Christians, Jews and Muslims must learn to live together in the Holy Land.
"There's no human force that is going to change the history that God started in this land.
"The fate of believers, whether they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim is to live together," he said.
He also urged worshippers to ask God "to grant (Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat) his freedom," as he branded the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories as the root of the conflict.
Arafat criticized Israel's decision to exclude him from the festivities.
"This is the third time they bar me from going to Bethlehem to take part in the Christmas celebrations at the Nativity Church," he told reporters.
"This is part of their attempts, which are bound to fail, to deal a blow to the morale of the Palestinian people," he added, speaking from his Ramallah headquarters, where he has been confined by the Israeli army since early December 2001.
bur-co/al/jah Mideast AFP 252114 GMT 12 03
Copyright (c) 2003 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 12/25/2003 16:16:52