Israeli-Palestinian violence burst out anew today when a car bomb injured eight people near Tel Aviv airport and Israeli gunfire on a funeral in Gaza killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded 14 others.
Despite the latest bloodshed, Israeli security officials held talks with their Palestinian counterparts from the West Bank at the suburban Tel Aviv residence of the US ambassador to Israel, Palestinian officials said.
The meeting, which followed similar security talks on Saturday, was aimed at coordinating efforts to head off further unrest.
In a sign of the growing concern at the escalating violence, an Israeli official said Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres would travel to Washington this weekend for talks with US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell and possibly President George W. Bush.
Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, whose stepped-up security measures, Palestinians blame for escalating bloodshed, said that 53 years after the establishment of the Jewish state its capital was again under threat of siege.
Israeli police said eight people were injured when a nail bomb placed in a stolen car blew up in the central town of Or Yehuda, about 10 km (six miles) from Tel Aviv and near BenGurion international airport.
It was the fourth explosion in Israel in two days and followed a Palestinian suicide attack yesterday that killed the bomber and an Israeli doctor in the central town of Kfar Saba, 20 km (12 miles) north of Tel Aviv.
The militant Islamic group Hamas said they were responsible for the suicide attack while an anonymous telephone caller said the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical Palestinian group, carried out the blast in Or Yehuda.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, asked about Israeli accusations that his Palestinian Authority held overall responsibility for such attacks, said: "I want to be very clear. We are against any operation targeting civilians, whether they are Israelis or Palestinians."