Two killed in Gaza suicide bombing

A bomb in the car then exploded, with the jeep taking the main force of the blast, police said.

The dead soldier was in a jeep guarding the bus as it picked up children from Jewish settlements located in the central and southern Gaza Strip. Three children in the bus were also slightly wounded, police said.

The militant group Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack though its spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, distanced his group from the claim, saying, “We have nothing to do with the bombing and we only came to know about it from media.”

Meanwhile, a caller identifying himself as `Hamas spokesman’called Israeli Radio after the blast saying “the attack was a part of revolution until death”.

The bombing appeared aimed at torpedoing the latest Israeli-Palestinian peace accord which was due to come into effect on Monday.

However, a senior Israeli official said Tel Aviv will not delay the implementation of the accord.

Gaza Strip has been sealed off by the army and Palestinian and Israeli authorities were conducting investigation about the blast.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will seek cabinet approval next week for the land-for-peace deal he signed with the Palestinians.

The announcement on Wednesday, made before members of the central committee of Netanyahu’s Likud Party appeared to lift the first setback for last Friday’s US-brokered peace agreement. Netanyahu had announced on Tuesday that he was indefinitely postponing a cabinet meeting expected to formally approve the deal on Thursday.

The prime minister “decided to wait for the Palestinians to give theAmericans their plan for fighting terrorism,” his spokesman had said then.

The move raised immediate suspicions that Netanyahu, who fought against the US-drafted land and security plan for months and signed the agreement only under intense US prodding, was bowing to hardline nationalists who dominate his government and want the deal scrapped.

Under the agreement, the Palestinian Authority is required to submit details of its plan to fight violence by Monday, the day the accord formally comes into effect.

The Palestinian leadership had insisted on Wednesday that it would meet the deadline.

Reacting to Thursday’s bombing, Netanyahu’s senior adviser, David Bar-Illan, said there would not be any delay in implementing the accord. However, Bar-Illan said Israel would be watching the Palestinian Authority’s response to the bombing closely. He also held Yasser Arafat’s government indirectly responsible for the attack.

“We blame them for lionizing and glorifying terrorists on the one hand while giving lipservice to fighting terrorism,” he said.