A bomb exploded on a bus in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv yesterday, dealing another blow to peace hopes after a planned Israeli-Palestinian summit in Egypt was cancelled.
Medical officials said 12 people had been hurt, one seriously, in at least two explosions on the number 51 inter-city bus on a main street in Tel Aviv, a major business center.
Black smoke billowed up and people were left lying on the ground after the blast. A police officer described it as a terrorist attack and said bomb disposal experts were checking for other bombs.
"We are talking about a terrorist attack," Tel Aviv police deputy commander Shahar Ayalon told Israeli television. "We are still dealing with some explosives, neutralizing them."
A witness said: "I was 50m from the bus. Police arrived and they moved people away. Smoke was coming out of the bus. They took a few wounded people out."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. During the past three months of violence, Palestinian militants have claimed responsibility for two bombings inside Israel, one in a Jerusalem market and the other in the northern town of Hadera.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak condemned the blast and vowed not to let it go unpunished.
"Such base attacks against innocent civilians will not deter us. We will continue in an all-out war against terrorism and reach, as in the past, the assailants and those who sent them," Barak said.
"The criminal attack will not break our determination to achieve real security by bringing about an end to the conflict and bloodshed in the region," he added.
At least 343 people have been killed in the clashes, most of them Palestinians and 13 of them Israeli Arabs. About 39 other Israelis have been killed, four of them in two car bombings inside Israel.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on peace ideas from US President Bill Clinton, who hopes to secure a peace deal before he leaves office on Jan. 20.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak decided not to go to Sharm el-Sheikh because the Palestinians had not accepted the US proposals. He had been due to meet Mubarak and possibly also Arafat.
An Israeli diplomatic source said Barak and Mubarak would speak after Arafat and Mubarak's meeting, and that they would decide when further talks might be held.
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