JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - A new U.S. peace drive in the Middle East suffered a fresh blow when a Palestinian Resistance bomber blew himself up on an intercity bus in northern Israel, killing three other people.
The attack on Thursday night occurred as U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni met Palestinian security officials to discuss ways to end 14 months of bloodshed in which at least 729 Palestinians and 196 Israelis have been killed.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said just before leaving on a trip to the United States that he held Palestinian President Yasser Arafat ``directly responsible'' for the latest attacks, even though the Palestinian Authority strongly condemned the bombing.
Sharon is to meet President Bush in Washington on Monday. Bush has called on Arafat to rein in Palestinian militants.
The Palestinian Authority said it was ``working in its full capacity to put an end to all sorts of attacks against Israeli civilians'' and had instructed Palestinian security agencies to ''chase the perpetrators and bring them to justice.''
The Authority also called on Israel ``to stop its assaults and to stop assassinations which only increases tension.''
An unofficial armed faction of Arafat's Fatah organization said in a statement faxed to Reuters that it was responsible for the attack, but its claim could not be immediately verified.
The blast ripped apart an intercity bus near the northern town of Hadera.
Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, a senior official in the Islamic group Hamas which has carried out suicide bombings, killing scores of Israelis since the start of a Palestinian uprising in September 2000, said Israel was to blame for the attack.
``The only reason for the resistance is the (Israeli) occupation and its assassination policy and as long as occupation exists, resistance will continue,'' he told Reuters in Gaza.
Palestinian officials have accused Sharon of trying to scuttle Zinni's peace effort by insisting on seven days of absolute calm before putting a truce-to-talks plan into effect.