A group calling itself the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility Monday for a car bomb in an Israeli town south of Tel Aviv that left eight injured, said AFP.
The Popular Resistance Forces, which has claimed anti-Israeli attacks in the past, said in an anonymous telephone call to AFP in Jerusalem that the attack was a "response to (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's terrorist war of aggression against our people."
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Monday that he was against any attacks on civilians, after the car bomb, said the agency.
"Without doubt, we do not agree with any operation against any civilian, Palestinian or Israeli," Arafat told reporters when asked to comment on a bomb blast that injured eight people in the town of Or Yehuda southeast of Tel Aviv.
The bomb attack occurred in a market in Abu Laban suburb, located near Ben Gurion Airport.
The police, cited by Israel Radio, said initially that it was a criminal act. But the Army Radio confirmed that nationalist motives were believed to be behind the attack, quoting a senior police officer.
Yosi Sedbon, the central region police commander told the radio that it was a bomb attack on a nationalist background.
Sedbon added that the bomb was inside the car, and police were quoted as saying that the car was stolen from Jerusalem area.
Also on Monday, a bomb was detonated early Monday against an Israeli bus in the West Bank, but there were no reports of injuries, said Haaretz newspaper.
It said the bus was driving on the Trans-Samaria Highway near Barkan junction when the bomb went off.
The paper added that there was an exchange of fire between armed Palestinians and Israeli soldiers near the Atarot industrial area just north of Jerusalem. No injuries were reported.
Meanwhile, the Brigades of the Martyrs of al-Aqsa claimed responsibility Monday for a bomb blast in the Israeli city of Haifa that lightly wounded a policeman, said AFP.
In a statement received by the agency in Beirut, the group said it set off the bomb at a Haifa intersection "in response to the criminal blockade imposed on our Palestinian people."
A Haifa police spokesman said a "suspicious package" went off Sunday, hurting an officer who had arrived to defuse it.
The Martyrs of al-Aqsa has claimed several attacks against Israeli targets since the eruption of the seven-month Palestinian Intifada.
PALESTINIAN BOY KILLED, 12 INJURED IN CLASHES WITH ISRAELI TROOPS IN GAZA
An 11-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead Monday and at least 12 other people were wounded during clashes with Israeli soldiers that broke out during a funeral in the southern Gaza Strip, medical sources and witnesses said, cited by AFP.
Mohannad Muharib was killed by a bullet to the head, they said.
The clashes Monday broke out in the Khan Yunis refugee camp during the funeral of Madi Khalil Madi, 25, a member of Palestinian presidential guards unit, Force 17, who died Sunday from wounds sustained during an Israeli raid on Deir el-Balah last week.
Witnesses said the Israeli troops stationed at the Neve Dakalim Jewish settlement, not far from the cemetery, also fired two tank shells at the crowd of mourners, raising the number of injuries, AFP added.
Some of the mourners were throwing stones at the soldiers, the witnesses said.
Tensions have been heightened in the Khan Yunis refugee camp since Israeli troops raided the area two weeks ago, destroying dozens of homes and leaving hundreds homeless.
Overnight, a Palestinian man was seriously injured Sunday as a series of explosions rocked a home in the south of Gaza City, a Palestinian security official and witnesses told AFP.
"An investigation has begun and the circumstances are still unclear," the official said.
Four consecutive explosions were heard coming from the home in a residential area of Sheikh Ijlin in southern Gaza City, witnesses said, adding that a fire broke out and the building was damaged.
The man, whose identity was unknown, was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, medical sources said.
HAMAS CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR KFAR SABA'S BOMB BLAST
Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement claimed on Monday its responsibility for Kfar Saba bomb attack carried out by one of its members, who and Israeli doctor were killed when the suicide attack took place Sunday morning, reported Radio Israel.
At least 50 people were injured in the blast.
"Omar Salim Abu Atieh, 22, from the Shujaeih refugee camp in Gaza carried out the lethal attack," the movement said in a statement, cited by the radio.
"Hamas will continue in its efforts to send suicide bombers into Israeli territory," added the statement.
Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by another group, but Hamas was the one which named the attacker.
The radio cited the police as saying that Abu Atieh had spent the night in Taybe, a nearby Israeli Arab town from where he took a taxi to kfar Saba.
One woman who was in the taxi testified that he asked how he could arrive to Tel Aviv; the taxi driver told him that he should take a bus from Tshernichovski Street, according to the report.
Earlier, an unknown group called "The Popular Army Front - Battalions of the Return" claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.
In a statement sent to AFP, the group confirmed it had "exploded a big device at Kfar Saba near the number 29 bus."
ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN SECURITY MEETING OFFICIALS TO MEET MONDAY
Despite the bombing, Israel and the Palestinians are scheduled to hold a security meeting on Monday, said Haaretz.
"It was decided during Saturday's security meeting that another one would be held discussing the West Bank specifically" a defense ministry spokesman had told AFP.
The head of Palestinian intelligence, Amin al-Hindi said Sunday that both sides had agreed to meet again in such meetings.
If the meeting, the second such gathering in three days, goes on as planned, the Palestinians are likely to demand that Israel ease its closure orders in the territories, while Israeli security officials are expected to press for an "absolute reduction" in violence, the radio said, cited by the paper.
Israel said early Sunday that it had reached an agreement with the Palestinians on measures to halt the unrest during a "positive" security meeting at the Erez crossing point in Gaza Saturday night, however, chief Palestinian negotiator emerged from the security meeting much less upbeat, said reports.
Sharon's spokesman hailed the three-hour overnight security meeting with Palestinian representatives as "serious and positive," reported Haaretz newspaper.
PERES SAYS CONTACTS WITH PALESTINIANS ONGOING DESPITE UNREST
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, on a one-day visit to Cyprus, said Monday that contacts with the Palestinians to end seven months of deadly violence were ongoing, despite recent events such as Sunday's fatal bomb blast in Kfar Saba near the West Bank city of Qalqilya on the Green Line border.
"We are opening channels with the Palestinians quietly in a series of discussions with them on how to bring an end to fire and in doing so how to enable the reopening of negotiations," Peres said, cited by AFP.
"My aim is not to cover but to discover a new path to peace."
Peres, on a one-day visit to neighboring Cyprus, he held talks with President Glafcos Clerides and Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides and is due to open a desalination plant built by an Israeli company, said Haaretz newspaper.
After meeting with Clerides, Peres praised Israel's relations with Cyprus, adding that some past peace talks in the Israeli-Arab conflict had taken place here and that more would occur in the future, the paper said.
"Basically, Cyprus and Israel are interested in Europizing the Middle East instead of terrorizing Europe. We work in the same direction," he said.
According to the paper, Peres mocked the notion that he was being manipulated by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to present its policies to the world.
"I don't feel I am using or being used," he said. "When it comes to fight terror, every nation is united," he said.
Meanwhile, Radio Israel reported that Peres will travel to Washington at the beginning of next week for diplomatic talks. Peres is expected to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, but it has not been determined if he will meet with President George W. Bush, said the radio - Albawaba.com
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