At least eight people were killed and another 20 injured in a suicide bomb attack on a bus near Haifa in northern Israel this morning.
An medical official said three of those injured were rushed to hospital in a serious condition.
The armed wing of the Hamas militant group, the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility in a call to Al-Jazeera televsion's office in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The death toll was earlier put at 10.
The explosion left a hole in the roof of the bus, while one witness reported the bus rose more than a meter into the air from the blast's impact.
Several passengers in nearby cars were injured and their vehicles badly damaged in the blast on the bus, which was traveling between Haifa and Jerusalem.
On March 31st, a suicide bombing in Haifa left 16 people dead.
Israel officials had been congratulating themselves in recent days that their ongoing military offensive in Palestinian areas of the West Bank had brought a halt to a wave of suicide bombings.
A senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon promptly blamed Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat. He said the blast justified the continuation of the offensive, despite pressure from Washington and elsewhere to call it off.
"Mr Yasser Arafat bears the responsibility for this terrorist attack which proves once more that he is doing nothing against terrorism and on the contrary is encouraging it," the aide, who refused to be identified, said.
The Palestinian government said the attack was a "natural response to the dirty war" of Mr Sharon.
Mr Arafat has been under siege in his office in Ramallah by Israeli troops since they launched the massive offensive in the West Bank on March 29th in the wake of another suicide blast in Netanya, south of Haifa.
AFP