Explosion Rocks Israeli Town

Nov. 22, 2000 -- An explosion rocked the Israeli town of Hadera today killing at least two and injuring more than 36 people, a local Israeli official said.

Israeli TV reported that a car bomb went off next to a bus on Hadera’s main Hanassi Street. An Israel Radio reporter at the scene said a bus wasdestroyed and nearby stores damaged.

“We have a terrorist attack in Hadera,” a police spokesmansaid. Black smoke rose over the town, halfway between thecities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, as ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast which occurred during the evening rush hour.

Hanoch Sasson, the acting mayor of Hadera, told Israeli television: “What I can say at the moment from the scene is that there are many wounded. There are apparently two killed officially.”

The car that carried the bomb is now a pile of twisted, smoking metal, Israeli TV reported. The blast was so powerful, it caused the bus to slam into a nearby store. Several stores also caught fire.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, although Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the military wing of the militant Islamic group Hamas, said in a statement earlier today it would bring death to every Israeli home.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said the Palestinian Authority was to blame for the car bombing.

“Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said thatthis is another barbaric attack aimed at innocent civilians,” Barak’s office said in a statement.

“The responsibility for the attack lies upon the Palestinian Authority which released terrorists, members of Hamas and Jihad, and encourages and directs its people to carry out attacks,” the statement said.

Palestinian Authority Denies Role

The Palestinian Authority said it was not involved in the Hadera bombing.

“We reject Barak’s accusations and we denounce them,” an official source in the Palestinian self-rule government said today. “He blames the Palestinian Authority each time for acts it is not linked to in order to justify the continuation of his army’s aggression on our people.”

U.S. Secretary of StateMadeleine Albright today strongly condemned the renewed outbreak of violence in the Middle East.

“There is a cycle of violence that must be broken,” Albright said at a news conference in Washington today.

Appealing for an end to what she called “the psychology of confrontation and grievance,” Albright called for a creation of “an environment for peace making.” To achieve this, she called upon the Palestinian Authority to end its incitement to violence and to arrest those responsible for terrorist acts, regardless of their affiliations.

She also called upon the Israelis to withdraw their forces to positions prior to the onset of the crisis, to restrain their use of force and to end the economic restrictions against Palestinians.

At least 257 people, most of them Palestinians, have beenkilled since the start of the 2-month-old uprising whichPalestinians are waging to throw off Israeli occupation.

Palestinians Killed in Shootout

The explosion in Hadera came hours after four Palestinians were killed near the Morag settlement in Gaza. But both sides gave two completely contradictory accounts of the incident, which the Palestinians are branding “an execution.”

Palestinian security officials said Israeli troops fired without provocation from tank-mounted machine guns at two cars with Palestinian civilians near the Morag Jewish settlement in the southern end of the strip.

Israeli military sources say an army post had been fired on and troops had returned fire.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the incident occurred when two civilian cars were driving along the road near the settlement, with a convoy of Jewish settlers and their military escort coming the other way. An Israeli tank fired a shell at the lead car and machine gun fire peppered both.

“It’s an execution,” said Khaled Abu Ola, a Palestinian liaison officer with Israel. “It was a crime and an assassination. More than 100 bullets penetrated each of the two cars,” he said. “Their brains and teeth were all over the cars. They are still refusing to return the bodies to us. It seems they are trying to fabricate a version of what happened.”

Red Crescent ambulances were denied access to the area to pick up the bodies.

Egyptian Ambassador Heads Home

The new killings only served to fan the flames of rage on both sides, as the funerals of six Palestinians and one Jewish settler who died Tuesday took place across the Gaza Strip.

“This just shows that there are no depths to which the Israelis will not plummet,” said Palestinian legislator Hannan Ashrawi.

The shooting was the latest incident in a new spiral of violence set off Monday by a deadly bomb attack on an Israeli school bus that killed two Israelis.

Israeli helicopters retaliated by blasting Palestinian security offices in Gaza, killing two Palestinians in what the United States has said was a show of excessive force.

In response to the rocket attack, Egypt recalled its ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Bassiouny on Tuesday, and Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu-Ragheb said his country’s new ambassador to Israel would not formally assume his post “until Israel ends its attacks.”

Bassiouny left the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv this morning, saying farewell to the staff, and then headed to the Israeli-Egyptian border by car, embassy officials said.

Arafat Criticizes United States

In Cairo today, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat attacked the United States for supplying Israel with weapons used to kill Palestinians while trying to broker peace in the Middle East.

“The most serious thing of all…is that the weapons used[by Israel] are American — American helicopters, Americanfighter planes, American armored cars, American missiles,American shells, American bombs,” Arafat told reporters while on a visit to Egypt.

“The responsibility for this is with America, the mainsponsor of the peace process…[because] part of its weaponry is used in attempts to exterminate the Palestinian people.”

Arafat, who held talks with President Hosni Mubarak earlier, was speaking after a meeting of the Cairo-based People’s Committee of Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada.

ABCNEWS’ Sue Masterman in Vienna, Bassem Barhoum in Ramallah and Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.