Suicide bomber wounds policeman

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian blew himself up at a bus stop in northern Israel during evening rush hour Wednesday, killing a policeman and wounding an officer and a bystander in the first suicide attack against Israelis in six weeks.\nThe bombing came amid a new burst of violence a day after Israel turned down a Palestinian offer to halt attacks on civilians in Israel as the first stage of a gradual truce.\nThe assailant detonated the explosives as he approached a police van that had pulled up at the bus stop to check him, officials said. The officers had acted on a tip that a suspicious-looking man with a bag was at a bus stop, security sources said. The assailant's original plan apparently was to blow himself up on the bus, police said.\nThere was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast near the Israeli Arab town of Umm el-Fahm. Mahmoud Zahar, a spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas, welcomed the attack, saying that "the Palestinians have every right to fight against the occupation."\nMohammed Akbariyeh, a witness, said he was sitting in a restaurant near the junction when he heard a loud explosion. "The ground just flew upward," Akbariyeh told Israel Radio. "We ran to the spot. We saw a police car which had been damaged from the rear. One policeman (was) wounded and another man (was) also wounded. The body of the terrorist was simply cut in two."\nIt was the first suicide bombing since Aug. 4, when a Hamas member blew himself up on an Israeli bus, killing nine passengers and bystanders.\nEarlier Wednesday, an Israeli motorist was killed in a West Bank shooting attack claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Also, the burned body of a Jewish settler was found in a West Bank garbage dump, apparently a victim of Palestinian militants. It marked the first time since Aug. 5 that Israeli civilians were killed in the West Bank.\nAlso Wednesday, Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian and wounded a second man in the West Bank village of Tamoun. The army said the two tried to run soldiers down with a car and fire on them. The mayor said the two were ambushed. He said the dead man was wanted by Israel and was active in the Al Aqsa militia.\nIn the northern West Bank, the body of Palestinian man was found in an olive grove. The man was a suspected collaborator with Israel and had been shot in the chest, residents said.\nIsrael has said the six-week lull in shootings and bombings was largely a result of the unprecedented military presence in the West Bank; Israeli troops reoccupied most Palestinian towns in June to thwart such attacks.\nThe head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, Avi Dichter, told the Israeli Cabinet on Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority has done nothing to prevent attacks. Yitzhak Levy, an Israeli Cabinet minister, said that "it's true there were a few weeks without attacks, but that doesn't mean that they (Palestinian militants) didn't try to carry out attacks."\nOn Tuesday night, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath met with senior Mideast mediators on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.\nThe so-called Quartet of mediators--consisting of senior officials from the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia--expressed support for a general roadmap to Palestinian statehood within three years, but did not agree on a detailed plan, as the Palestinians had hoped.\nThe road map has three phases: Palestinian reform and elections, followed by the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state in some of the West Bank and Gaza in 2003, and a final peace agreement by 2005.\nThe Quartet said progress from one phase to the next would be based on the parties' compliance, to be judged by the mediators. The Quartet did not provide a more detailed timetable.\nArafat, speaking before the latest attacks on Israelis, said he hoped there would be an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas so reforms can be implemented.\nSpeaking at the start of a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that no progress could be made without "total cessation of violence and terror."\nSharon adviser Raanan Gissin said Israel supports the Quartet's outline as a more detailed version of President Bush's vision of Mideast peace. "We accept the map as long as it all comes after a cessation of violence," Gissin said. "This obligates the Palestinians, and that's why Shaath is opposed."\nDuring the meeting with the Quartet, Shaath proposed a gradual truce to Peres. The Palestinian Authority "will be ready to encourage all Palestinians to stop targeting Israeli civilians," he said, adding that he also sought an Israeli promise to stop killing suspected Palestinian militants and destroying houses.\n"If Israel will do that, then this will pave a way for a comprehensive cease-fire, but unfortunately Mr. Peres said that he rejects it," he told The Associated Press.\nPalestinians refer to civilians as those living in Israel, but consider Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza to be combatants.\nPeres told Shaath that the proposal "would not be helpful because it would mean in the first phase it is permissible to kill other people," an Israeli statement said.