Jerusalem Carnage

An apparent suicide bomber detonated a powerful explosive in an Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem on Saturday night as residents were leaving synagogues and returning to the streets at the end of the Jewish Sabbath, police said.

At least six people were killed, including a 1-year-old child and the attacker, hospital officials said. At least 30 people were injured, the officials said.

An armed group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction claimed responsibility for the bombing.

An unidentified caller from the group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, told Reuters that the bomber came from the Deheisheh refugee camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. He said a videotape of the bomber would be released later.

"This attack is in response to the massacres that the (Israeli) army carried out in Balata and in Jenin," the caller said.

At least 21 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in Israeli raids on the West Bank refugee camps this week, dealing a new blow to international efforts to end 17 months of Middle East bloodshed.

The thunderous Saturday blast was heard throughout downtown Jerusalem, and sent flames leaping into the air from a car that caught on fire.

Police initially said it was a car bombing. But Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said later it appeared to be a suicide bomber.

“From a check of the cars, it seems it wasn't a car bomb, but a suicide bomber who approached a group of people,” and detonated the device, Levy said, describing it as a large bomb.

“A car that went up in flames was...near the location (of the bomber),” Levy said. “There is a strong fear of additional bombs in the area as we have seen in the past.”

With sirens wailing, ambulances and police cars rushed to Mea Shearim, an Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in west Jerusalem. It is just across a main road from Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

“I came right out (on the street) and saw a car on fire, the building next to it was also on fire,” said witness Yitzhak Weinberger, 22.

Firemen hosed down a smoking car and rescue workers carried away the wounded on stretchers.

"This has nothing to do with warfare, this has nothing to do with national liberation, this has to do with the murder of innocent Jews coming back from their evening prayers," said Israeli government spokesman Dore Gold.

"The state of Israel knows how to defend the people of Israel,
and will do so."

The United States condemned the bombing as a "terrorist outrage" and renewed a demand that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat curb attacks against Israel.

The Bush administration said Arafat and the Palestinian Authority should do "everything possible" to stop "the terrorists responsible for these criminal acts," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement.

The Palestinian leadership condemned the bombing, but blamed Israel for the latest surge in violence.

"The Palestinian National Authority fully condemns the operation in Jerusalem that targeted civilians. The Palestinian leadership condemns any actions that target civilians from both sides, Israeli and Palestinian," it said in a statement.

It criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government for what it said was its "policy of aggression against the Palestinian people."

"The Israeli government carries full responsibility for this latest escalation," the Palestinian leadership said, adding it remained ``fully committed to the peace process."

The attack came ahead of a Tuesday meeting at the White House at which President Bush is expected to sound out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about a Saudi peace overturn to Israel.

The proposal offers Israel recognition, peace and trade with the oil-rich kingdom and the other Arab states in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from all the West Bank, Gaza and part of Jerusalem.

"I think it is significant. But we've seen similar proposals, so it's not entirely new," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "But what I think makes it significant is that it's coming from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia at this time," he told CNN's "Novak, Hunt & Shields" in an interview taped Friday and broadcast Saturday.

Powell described the proposal as "something that is still just a vision, just an idea, that will require more fleshing-out."

The cycle of violence in the Middle East also was on his mind. "People can come out with new ideas, new peace plans, new initiatives, have conferences, send emissaries to the region. It will all do no good unless the violence is brought to an end."

Israeli soldiers withdrew Saturday from one of the two refugee camps they had entered over the past three days, on the outskirts of Jenin, about 20 miles from Nablus in the West Bank. But the army was still conducting house-to-house searches in the other, the crowded Balata refugee camp next to Nablus.

Israeli officials said the camps had become strongholds for militants responsible for several deadly attacks against Israel.

Palestinians said the operations in the two camps have left 21 dead over the three days and escalated tensions in an already roiling region. The dead included gunmen, policemen and civilians, according to the Palestinians.

The Israeli army said about 30 Palestinian gunmen were killed and some 200 wounded in the raids. It did not mention Palestinian civilian casualties. Two Israeli soldiers have also been killed, the army said.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Israeli actions were “aimed at demolishing and destroying the two camps and making their residents refugees again.” He ruled out any meetings soon between Israeli and Palestinian security officials, who held two acrimonious and fruitless sessions this past week.

Israeli Col. Aviv Kochavi, the commander of the paratroopers who have carried out the operation in Balata, described it as a success so far. He cited the capture of seven Qassam rockets that were ready, or nearly ready for launch, and seven explosive belts, the kind often used by suicide bombers.

“I hope we've foiled seven suicide bombings with this discovery,” Kochavi told reporters Saturday afternoon, several hours before the attack in Jerusalem.

The Israeli forces took control of the Balata camp, where 20,000 people live, shortly after the raid was launched Thursday morning and have faced only limited resistance, he said.

Militants have been arrested, he added, but he declined to give any figures.

Palestinians say most militants managed to escape. Some Israeli military commentators have questioned whether any key Palestinian militants have been detained, and have also raised doubts about whether the operation will improve Israel's security.

Palestinian youths began throwing stones at soldiers in the Balata camp Saturday afternoon, and an 18-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by the soldiers, Palestinian officials said.

The Israeli raids mark the first time the army has sent ground troops into refugee camps during the 17 months of Mideast fighting. Israel had been reluctant to enter the camps, where it is difficult for its tanks and other armored vehicles to move in the narrow, congested streets.

In Nablus, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, said they executed a Palestinian after he allegedly confessed to collaborating with Israel.

In the Gaza Strip, a 27-year-old Palestinian attempting to plant a bomb was shot and killed early Saturday when Israeli tanks fired rounds near the town of Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City. The Israeli army and the militant Islamic group Hamas both said afterward that the man was trying to attack Israelis.