ISRAEL's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday held Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority responsible for the suicide bombing in central Tel Aviv that killed three Israeli women and injured more than 40 Israelis, many of them children.
Israeli security chiefs last night met their Palestinian counterparts to demand the re-arrest of Islamic militants recently released by Mr Arafat, and to discuss ways to prevent further bombings.
The Hamas Islamic radical group acknowledged that it had carried out the blast, the first such bombing in Israel in more than a year.
Mr Netanyahu, however, charged that the Palestinian Authority was ultimately to blame, since it had given "the green light" to the extremists.
Palestinian officials rejected this assertion as "utterly untrue". Mr Arafat's spokesman called it lunacy, and said that Israel, by pressing ahead with building work on a controversial new Jewish neighbourhood at Har Homah in Arab East Jerusalem, had effectively "pulled the trigger".
Mr Arafat, in a telephone call to the Israeli President, Mr Ezer Weizman, condemned the bombing. But he did not immediately call Mr Netanyahu.
Despite this absence of top-level communication, and the trading of accusations over the bombing, the fact that both side's security, chiefs were meeting last night suggested a mutual desire to try and salvage peace efforts.
Yesterday's bombing, at lunchtime in the crowded outdoor courtyard of a central Tel Aviv cafe, came as no surprise. Relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have slowly worsened since Mr Netanyahu won election here last May, and there has been a marked deterioration in the last lewd weeks.
The Palestinians were annoyed when Israel offered them control of only a small extra area of the West Bank in the latest phase of the peace process, and infuriated when Mr Netanyahu ordered bulldozers to start work earlier this week at Har Homah.
Mr Netanyahu last night ruled out a halt to building at Har Homah, saying he would not "surrender to terrorism".
Israeli intelligence chiefs had for several days been briefing ministers to the effect that Mr Arafat had been releasing Islamic activists from Palestinian jails, and that Palestinian Authority officials had conveyed the impression to the radicals that they would not object to a new wave of anti-Israeli attacks.
At a rally in the Gaza Strip yesterday, at the very time of the bombing, one of those recently released, Hamas militant Ibrahim Makdamah, was pledging that "holy warriors, carrying explosives on their body," would hit Tel Aviv and other targets in their fight "for the return of Jerusalem".
The Israeli army and police were on full alert from dawn yesterday. In the morning, there were riots in Hebron, the only West Bank city where Israel still maintains a partial military presence. On Thursday, there had been similar clashes in Bethlehem. But security chiefs had decided against sealing off the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the wake of the bombing, a full closure order has been imposed.
The 28-year-old bomber of the Tel Aviv cafe, whose name was not released for publication last night, came from the Hebron area. The explosive package he detonated included nails to maximise damage - a tactic used in the suicide bombings a year ago as well.
Reuter adds: The United, Nations Secretary-General, Mr," Kofi Annan, who is visiting Africa, strongly condemned the bombing of the Tel Aviv cafe yesterday and said he hoped it would not be allowed to derail the Middle East peace process.
. The United States yesterday used its UN Security Council veto for the second time in two weeks to block a resolution calling on Israel to halt a settlement construction in Arab east Jerusalem. In the 15-member council, 13 voted in favour and Costa Rica abstained, but the US veto prevented the resolution's adoption.
. Israel's UN envoy cited a statement yesterday by the military leader of Hamas, Mr Ibrahim al-Makadmeh, as implying responsibility for the 1992 bombing of Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people and, wounded more than 200. In a speech yesterday Mr Makadmeh was quoted as saying: "We should not have mercy on our enemies; our people have an obligation to chase them, whether they live in Tel Aviv or in Latin America."