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A suicide bomber blew himself up in a Jerusalem fast-food stand Tuesday, injuring seven people in the first attack here since back-to-back bombings prompted Israel to occupy major West Bank towns last month.
Earlier in the day, two Israeli settlers were shot and killed in the West Bank after they entered a Palestinian village, and a settler couple was seriously wounded after they were stabbed in their home by a Palestinian intruder.
Israeli officials warned that planned easing of restrictions in the seven Palestinian towns it occupied last month would be delayed if attacks continued. However, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Raanan Gissin, said Israel still wants to resume security talks with the Palestinians after a monthslong lull.
Also Tuesday, Israeli prosecutors charged two Palestinians with masterminding attacks that killed 17 Israelis, the first time indictments have been handed down in civilian court against alleged militants in the Palestinian uprising.
Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested since the September 2000 outbreak of violence. Palestinian prisoners' organizations estimate that about 3,500 are still in custody. Most are awaiting interrogation, while others are held under renewable detention orders issued by the Israeli military.
In the Jerusalem attack, the bomber detonated his explosives inside the Yemenite Falafel Stand in one of the most heavily guarded areas of central Jerusalem and one of the most targeted by militants: There have been at least eight bombing and shooting attacks in the area in the past 22 months of fighting.
Seven people were injured in the attack, one of them moderately, police said.
Glass shards littered the street in front of the stand, which is popular with Jerusalem police, whose headquarters are nearby. The bombers' remains littered the ground.
Israel Radio said it appeared the bomber drew the attention of police officers at the stand and that he set off the explosion prematurely.
Sgt. Ofir Yona said he was on patrol about 20 yards from the stand on Haneviim Street, or Street of the Prophets, and saw the bomber enter carrying a black bag seconds before the explosion went off.
"He didn't look suspicious," Yona said. "He was cleanly shaven. He had his hair gelled back. He noticed us and then he entered the shop."
Jerusalem Police Chief Micky Levy said the bomber was a 17-year-old from the West Bank town of Bethlehem, but did not give a name.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
In the West Bank town of Ramallah, a Palestinian woman on her way to a suicide bombing was arrested by Israeli security forces, the military said. Ramallah is close to Jerusalem.
Separately Tuesday, the army said it had arrested a would-be suicide bomber found hiding in a house in the Israeli Arab village of Kfar Kassem. The army said the bomber showed soldiers an explosive belt hidden in an olive grove, which soldiers later detonated.
The head of the Shin Bet security service, Avi Dichter, told a parliamentary committee Tuesday that Israel had received 60 warnings of pending attacks and had thwarted 12 in the past few days, a parliament spokeswoman said.
Israel has blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for attacks on its civilians, saying the Palestinian Authority has done nothing to stop militant groups. The Palestinians argue that Israel's military assaults on its cities and security forces have left them with little ability to prevent attacks.
"I think it's tragic and most regrettable that at a time when we are trying to ease restrictions ... the response of the Palestinian Authority is more terrorist activity," Gissin said.
Earlier Tuesday, masked Palestinian gunmen hiding behind olive trees shot and killed two Israeli settlers who had gone to a Palestinian village in the West Bank for business, residents and military sources said.
Settlers and residents said the two brothers, from the Jewish settlement of Tapuach, had gone to the village of Jammaien, south of Nablus, to sell fuel. The area is under Israeli security control.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Overnight, a Palestinian entered a house in the Jewish settlement of Itamar near Nablus and stabbed a settler and his wife, seriously wounding them, the rescue service spokesman and Israel Radio said. Security guards at the settlement killed the infiltrator.
Settlers have been the targets of dozens of attacks in the past 22 months of fighting.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer spokesman Yarden Vatikay said Tuesday that Israel wanted the Palestinians to take over security control in Gaza and areas of the West Bank, coordinated with the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The new Palestinian interior minister, Abdel Razek Yehiyeh, who is responsible for the security services, said "serious preparations" were under way for a meeting but a date hadn't been set.
In the West Bank town of Nablus, meanwhile, residents ignored the army-imposed curfew for the third straight day, milling about markets and moving freely in the center of the city in the largest demonstration yet against the Israeli curfew confining residents to their homes.
(China Daily July 31, 2002)
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