The Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement claimed on Monday responsibility for Kfar Saba bomb attack carried out by one of its members who, together with an 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 travel 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." It did not mention any victims.
Israeli police said it was a suicide attack, in which the bomber and a 53-year-old Israeli man died. At least 60 people were injured and two were in a serious condition.
The group said the attack was "in response to the bombings, raids, destruction of houses and land ... and aggression against our people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as in response to the bombing of a Syrian position in Lebanon."
The Israeli army launched an overnight attack on a Syrian position in eastern Lebanon on April 15, killing, according to Damascus, one soldier and wounding four others.
The group accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and the government of "wanting to impose an interim accord (on Palestinians), while demanding land, peace and security at the same time."
The main Palestinian militant organization, Hamas, described the bombing as a legitimate self-defense earlier Sunday, without going as far as to claim responsibility for the attack.
Sharon put the blame on the shoulders of the Palestinian Authority, accusing the PA of "not working in accordance with the agreements it is committed to regarding foiling attacks of terror against Israel."
The bomb exploded around 9 a.m. Israel local time (06.00 GMT) near an Egged bus in the Israeli city of Kfar Saba near the West Bank town of Qaliqilya on the Green Line border, said reports.
Israel's police chief, Shlomo Aharonishki, said in a press conference in Kfar Saba that there are no available details on where the bomber arrived from, Israel Radio quoted him as saying in a press conference.
He added that he supports the "establishment of more physical obstacles between Israel and the Palestinian areas."
The No. 29 Egged bus, which was on the way from Kfar Saba to Herzliya, was on the corner of Weizman and Tchernichovsky Streets at the time of the explosion.
This was the third bomb explosion in the city in less than a month.
A week ago, a bomb exploded in the city injuring an Israeli man.
On March 28, two Israeli teenagers were killed along with a suicide bomber at a bus station near the city.
SHARON SAYS PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY BEARS RESPONSIBILITY FOR KFAR SABA BOMB
Meanwhile, Sharon on Sunday put the blame for the deadly bombing in Kfar Saba squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
"Israel holds the Palestinian Authority responsible for the attack, because it is not working in accordance with the agreements it is committed to regarding foiling attacks of terror against Israel", Sharon said in a statement, quoted by AFP.
He stressed that the blast which killed the suicide bomber and a 53-year-old Israeli man came only hours after an Israeli-Palestinian security meeting aimed at putting an end to the deadly cycle of violence.
"Following the meeting held yesterday (Saturday), one would have expected that the PA work towards preventing terror attacks and condemn the present attack", the statement said.
He reiterated that his government's priority was to "restore security for Israelis".
Peres also put the blame for the attack on the PA, said AFP.
"Stopping the attacks is the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority", Peres told journalists.
"The attack is a blow below the belt struck at Israel and peace, and finally struck also at the Palestinians", he said.
A spokesman for Sharon said earlier Sunday that the Palestinian Authority bore full responsibility for the bomb attack and said the culprits would "pay the price," AFP quoted him as saying.
"We have another bloody Sunday," said Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin.
"The full responsibility on what's happening lies with the Palestinian Authority and with their security forces," Gissin told AFP.
"They are supposed to stop terrorist activity. And what happened, not only don't they stop terrorist activity, they are now supporting, aiding and abetting the terrorist activity," he added.
Gissin said the perpetrators of the attack would "pay the price" but declined to say what action Israel was considering, according to the agency.
BOMB EXPLODES IN WEST BANK MONDAY, NO INJURIES
Haaretz newspaper reported that a bomb was detonated early Monday against an Israeli bus in the West Bank, but there were no reports of injuries.
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.
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.
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.
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 of such a 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.
The meeting, held near the Erez crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel, "was carried out in a serious and positive atmosphere," the spokesman said at the end of the meeting.
Israel was represented by the head of the Shin Bet, Avi Dichter, the head of planning at the General Staff, Major General Giora Eiland and the chief of the southern command, Doron Almog.
The Palestinians were represented by the head of the General Intelligence Service, Amin al-Hindi; and the head of national security in the Gaza Strip, General Abd al-Razeq al-Majaideh.
The two parties "decided to cooperate on a security plan and to apply measures aimed at putting an end to the violence and terrorism," as well as new measures to ease the restrictions on the Palestinian population, he added.
The paper said that Israeli and Palestinian commanders on the ground are expected to renew meetings Sunday.
However, Majaideh was much less enthusiastic, dismissing Israel's response to questions regarding incursions into Palestinian-run areas in the Gaza Strip as "insufficient," the paper quoted him as saying.
"The responses given by Israel were completely insufficient and do not satisfy the minimum demands" of the (Palestinian) population," the general said.
In a statement, she said that the Palestinian delegation had handed over a list of Israeli violations of the autonomy accords.
This document cited the demolition of Palestinian buildings by Israeli bulldozers, the closure of road and border crossings, bombardment of Palestinian positions and the multiplication of Palestinian casualties of Israeli attacks.
In the letter, the Palestinian delegates decried recent Israeli "armed incursions" into Palestinian-controlled territory as well as operations targeted against Palestinian activists.
They demanded the resumption of the use of VIP cards to enable Palestinian leaders to travel freely and the reopening of the Rafah airport in the Gaza Strip, said the paper.
On April 16, the Israeli army mounted a major incursion into the Gaza Strip, sending in heavy tanks and bulldozers, after mortar shells were fired at the Israeli town of Sderot, in the south of the country.
The Palestinians affirmed that for their part they had "taken measures to reduce the violence, notably by banning all firing from populated (Palestinian) areas" towards Israeli targets.
However, the Palestinian side declared itself ready to "resume security cooperation" with Israel if their demands are satisfied.
According to them, the Israeli team was committed to giving a reply within two weeks on the reopening of the airport, Haaretz added.
PERES SAYS CONTACTS WITH PALESTINIANS ONGOING DESPITE UNREST
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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