The bomb attack left one dead, 13 others injured

Additional Reporting By Maha Abdul Hadi & Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Palestine Correspondents

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, April 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – One Israeli was killed and 13 others were injured when a Palestinian fighter blew himself up at an Israeli train station on Thursday, April 24, police and medics said.

The explosion took place during morning rush hour at the entrance to the station in the central Israeli town of Kfar Saba, which lies close to the dividing line between Israel and the West Bank.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah group, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

In a call to Agence France-Presse (AFP) here, the resistance group said Ahmad Khaled Khatib, 18, had carried out the attack on a Kfar Saba railway station that also left 12 people wounded.

The caller made no reference to the political context, but the attack comes a day after Arafat and his “dovish” prime minister-designate reached a deal on forming a new government whose first task will be to crack down on resistance movement.

The blast also comes one day after Israeli occupation troops thrust into a hospital in the Wes Bank city of Jenin and abducted three fighters of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement and some civilians. They also broke into Beir Zeit University and opened fire on a number of students, leaving some of them seriously injured, Al-Jazeera reported.

Medics said the explosion killed the bomber and at least one other person and at least two of the injured were in serious condition in the first such attack inside Israel in nearly a month.

According to Israeli radio, the security guard was searching the bomber as he tried to enter the new station at Kfar Saba, northeast of Tel Aviv, which was opened only a few days ago.

The attack took place a few hours after Arafat (R) Abbas (L), hammered out an agreement on the formation of a new government

Israeli army rmy radio said the bomber was from the refugee camp of Balata in the nearby West Bank city of Nablus, which was under an Israeli siege and tight curfew for more than a year.

The blast proves that securing a military solution to the conflict with the Palestinians is wrong as the attacker areas, fully occupied by the Israeli forces, managed to break through all security barriers and carry out the attack," Al-Jazeera correspondent said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said such attacks could be ended by enhancing repressive measures against the Palestinians which he said would make Israel fully secure.

The attack rocked Kfar Saba at 7:20 am (0420 GMT), a few hours after Palestinian President leader Yasser Arafat and his prime minister-designate, Mahmud Abbas, hammered out a last-minute agreement on the formation of a new government after days of stormy negotiation.

One of the key tasks of the new administration will be to crack down on resistance movements in an effort to get the peace process with Israel back on track.

The Islamic resistance movement Hamas warned shortly after the end Arafat-Abu Mazen disagreement that the new moderate cabinet not to take on resistance fighters, AFP reported.

"The Zionist occupation is terrorism. If this cabinet resists and makes war against the occupation, we will welcome it, but if this cabinet makes war against the mujahedeen, we will not welcome it," a group leader said, using the Arabic term for holy warriors.

Israel said the Thursday attack proved that the new Palestinian government's priority should be to crack down on the resistance fighters.

"This attack proves that the first priority of the new Palestinian government should be to wage war against “terrorist organizations” such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad and not to negotiate with them," said a high-ranking official.