Israel Thwarts Massive Bombing

Israel Thursday thwarted a massive bombing as security forces intercepted a pickup truck packed with 1300 pounds of explosives as Palestinians tried to drive it into Israel from the West Bank.

CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger reports it was one of the biggest car bombs ever discovered in Israel, and one official said it would have changed the entire political situation in the Middle East had it gone off. The terrorists escaped after a chase, and the bomb was safely detonated.

Israel is bracing for a possible new wave of attacks by Palestinian militants during the Jewish New Year holiday, which begins at sundown Friday. Israeli-Palestinian fighting erupted during the holiday two years ago.

Later Thursday, a bomb exploded under an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding three, the military said.

An umbrella group representing several Palestinian factions claimed responsibility. "This operation came to prove that Palestinian fighters are capable of reaching everywhere and retaliating...for Israeli crimes," a caller told The Associated Press, reading from a statement. The umbrella group is dominated by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

Also in the Gaza Strip Thursday, a Palestinian gunman fired at an army patrol, wounding two Israeli soldiers before being shot dead by troops. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the shooting.

In the West Bank, tanks raided the Balata refugee camp and troops arrested two members of the Islamic militant group Hamas on suspicion they were planning to carry out a suicide bombing, the military said.

The incidents took place after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Wednesday a peace breakthrough looked feasible for the first time, because Palestinians were realising that violence would not win them a state.

Meanwhile, Palestinian faction leader Marwan Barghouthi told an Israeli court Thursday he rejected its authority to try him on charges he masterminded deadly attacks on Israeli citizens.

"I don't recognize this court. This is a court of the occupation," said Barghouthi, who was led into the courtroom handcuffed and unshaven.

"I am a Palestinian parliamentarian. I was elected by the Palestinian people. I am a political figure," he told the three-judge civilian court in fluent Hebrew.

"You have no right to put me on trial, the state of Israel should be on trial," he said, adding he did not want to hear the indictment that was read to him.

Relatives of terror victims and Barghouti's three children were in the packed courtroom. In the hallway outside, there were scuffles and shouting matches between Jewish and Arab spectators.

Syria's official press lashed out Thursday at a proposed U.S. law that would punish Damascus for supporting Hezbollah and radical Palestinian groups, calling the idea the work of Israeli pawns in Congress.

The remarks reflect rising tension in ties between Washington and Syria, which warns the United States wants to fill the region with puppet states subordinated to Israel and that it could be a U.S. military target along with Iraq.

Near the northern Israeli town of Hadera, police stopped two suspicious cars early Thursday and discovered that one, a pickup truck, was rigged with 1,300 pounds of explosives, as well as two barrels with fuel and metal fragments. A cell phone, which was to have set off the charge, was attached.

Later, in central Gaza near the Maghazi refugee camp, Israeli military sources said a tank rolled over an explosive device. There were no further details.

Witnesses said flames engulfed the tank. Helicopters were hovering overhead and other tanks and soldiers arrived at the scene.

A caller who said he was from the Popular Resistance Committee, a group of militants from different Palestinian factions, told Reuters by telephone the group was responsible for the attack.

Police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had averted a so-called "mega attack," and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the discovery of the bomb was a "miracle."

Had the bomb gone off, Peres said, "it would have cost such loss of life that it would have changed almost the entire political situation in one moment."

The incident began when volunteers serving with the police spotted two vehicles speeding down a winding dirt road leading from the West Bank into Israel. The volunteers gave chase and the drivers abandoned the cars and got away on foot.

The bomb squad detonated the charge, destroying the car. The second vehicle apparently was to have served as a getaway car. Police using tracker dogs and helicopters were searching for the drivers.

Israel has traditionally tightened security during Jewish holidays. The deadliest Palestinian attack in two years came on the eve of the Passover holiday in March, when a suicide bomber killed 29 guests in a hotel banquet hall.

However, there as been a month-long lull in suicide attacks.

Israel is hoping the civilian court trial of Barghouthi, its first of a major player in the two-year-old uprising for independence, will help show Palestinian leadership complicity in attacks.

But the exposure may ultimately cement Barghouthi's chances of replacing Arafat and leading the next generation of Palestinians.