A suicide bomber killed himself and three Israelis in an explosion that rocked the heart of the Israeli coastal city of Netanya today, a day after Islamic militants vowed to launch fresh attacks.
Angry Israelis tried to lynch an Arab, seriously wounding the man, in the same city following the attack, while Palestinians mourning two young men shot dead in the West Bank yesterday shouted: We took revenge today in Netanya.
Police said the Israelis killed when the bomber detonated explosives at a street crossing were an 84-year-old man and two women, one a 70-year-old immigrant from Ukraine. At least 68 people were wounded.
Hours later, no claim of responsibility had been made for the blast, not far from the site of an explosion on New Year's Day which wounded dozens of people and for which the militant Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility.
Hamas officials said they did not know who caused today's explosion.
"It's not important who did it - whether it be Hamas or (Islamic) Jihad or any other faction," Hamas spokesman Abdel-Aziz Rantissi said. "The important thing is that our Palestinian people are alive and resisting and will not accept occupation or any Zionist aggression."
The suicide bombing was the latest fatal attack in a five-month-old Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation and took the number of Israelis killed to 65. A total of 341 Palestinians and 13 Israeli Arabs have also died.
Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon, speaking to reporters, accused Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority of doing nothing to prevent attacks.
"This attack...shows the Palestinian Authority is not taking the required steps. We know clearly that forces particularly loyal to Mr Arafat are taking part in these attacks," he said. "It's clear they are not taking any steps to prevent it."
Mr Sharon, who is forming a broad-based unity government, said it would restore security to Israelis.
Hospital officials said the condition of the unidentified Palestinian attacked in Netanya in what police called a lynching improved to serious from critical.
Police arrested one person and said they were hunting for three others after the assault, which came after local Arabs fearing attack after the explosion fled into a market.
Mr Sharon called for restraint and urged people not to take the law into their own hands.