An Israeli man was killed and about six others were injured yesterday after a Palestinian bomber detonated explosives attached to his body. The taxi-van in which he was travelling had been stopped at a police roadblock in northern Israel.
The bomber, who was in serious condition in an Israeli hospital last night, blew off his own legs in the attack.
The blast came at a time of rising tension between Israelis and Palestinians, with peace hopes having evaporated, a new hardline Israeli government about to take office, and leaders on both sides accusing each other of deliberately deepening the conflict.
Another bombing attack was thwarted on Wednesday when a bag containing explosives, planted in a Tel Aviv restaurant, was spotted by the owner. The device was detonated by police bomb-disposal experts in a controlled explosion.
In questioning after yesterday's blast, the injured bomber reportedly acknowledged that he had also been involved in Wednesday's abortive Tel Aviv attack.
The Israeli security forces remained on high alert last night, amid intelligence warnings of further bombings.
Israeli police had evidently received a tip-off about yesterday's bomber and followed the taxi-van as it made its way north from Tel Aviv, setting up roadblocks.
When the vehicle was stopped at one such roadblock, and a policeman approached and asked the passengers for identification, the bomber detonated his device, blowing the roof and back off the van.
Mr Ephraim Sneh, Israel's Deputy Defence Minister, said he regarded the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, as ultimately to blame for the new wave of attacks.
"As long as activists of Hamas and the [Islamic] Jihad are walking around free in the West Bank and Gaza," he said, referring to a spate of recent releases by the PA of violent militants from its jails, "the responsibility is of those who let them walk around freely."
Israeli military officials claimed this week that the PA has lately recruited to the ranks of its security forces extremists from Hamas and other groups explicitly committed to violence against Israel.
And in a briefing on Wednesday, the army's Chief-of-Staff, Gen Shaul Mofaz, charged that the PA was essentially becoming a "terrorist entity", initiating attacks and smuggling in and stockpiling weapons. Palestinian officials angrily denied the assertions.
Mr Sneh, a member of the Labour Party, is campaigning to be appointed defence minister in the new government that is being set up by the Likud's Prime Minister-elect, Mr Ariel Sharon.
Mr Sharon has promised Labour that post, and seven other ministerial jobs, in a "unity coalition". Labour is to choose its ministers in internal elections today, and Mr Sharon has indicated that he hopes to have his government sworn in next Wednesday.