NABLUS, West Bank, March 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A bomb blast in northern Israel on Wednesday came just hours following Israel’s killing of two Palestinians outside the village of Aviezer, around 30 kilometers southwest of occupied Jerusalem near the border with the West Bank.

An anonymous caller claiming to represent the Palestinian resistance group, Islamic Jihad, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) carried out the retaliatory bomb attack that killed at least seven passengers and wounded 30 others on a bus in northern Israel Wednesday. The caller named the bomber as Rafad Abu Diak, 20, from the village of Silat al-Dhar, between Nablus and Jenin in the West Bank.

News agencies reported that the bomber blew up the bus carrying mostly Israeli Arabs who were on their way to work traveling from Tel Aviv to the northern city of Nazareth near the village of Umm El-Fahem.

The retaliatory attack took place in a sector close to the "green line" separating Israel from the West Bank. The bomber is believed to be among the dead. The blast occurred just after 7am local time (0500 GMT), the beginning of the rush hour.

This comes ahead of a high-level security meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials under the auspices of the CIA and U.S. envoy, Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine Corps general sent by Washington to map out a ceasefire.

The meeting aimed to hammer out the problems preventing a ceasefire declaration after a visit to the region by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Palestinian leadership, convened in Ramallah late Tuesday by Arafat, said it was "fully ready" to put into effect the Tenet ceasefire plan, drawn up last June by CIA director George Tenet. The pledge came in a communiqué carried by the Palestinian news agency WAFA after a meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah chaired by Arafat, who had met earlier in the day with Zinni.

"The Palestinian leadership commits itself to working for a consolidation of the ceasefire and a strict implementation of recommendations made in the Tenet plan and the Mitchell report."

The Tenet plan, named after U.S. CIA director George Tenet, sets out security measures for a ceasefire as a prelude to implementing a blueprint for getting peace talks back on track presented by former U.S. senator George Mitchell.

"We, the Palestinian leadership and people, are fully ready to begin implementing (the two plans) according to the established calendar and in spite of Israeli evasiveness," the statement added.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney flew in Israel for a 24-hour visit to add his weight to the ceasefire talks and held talks with hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Cheney, who was in the last stages of an 11-nation Middle East tour, said after talks with Sharon that a truce required Arafat's full compliance with the Tenet proposals put forth last June.

Cheney did not see Arafat during his stay, but offered to meet him once a ceasefire was in place. No date or venue was set for the talks, but the Americans said they could come as early as next week.

Sharon put forward the condition of a ceasefire in order for Arafat to be “permitted” to leave the Palestinian territories where he is still under travel restrictions after being released from virtual house arrest in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

But Sharon also warned that Arafat could be barred from returning if he utters what he called "incitements to violence" or "terrorist operations" are launched against Israel in his absence.

Arafat hopes to attend a potentially crucial Arab summit in Beirut next week, when a Saudi Middle East peace initiative will be discussed. The plan calls on Israel to withdraw from land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for normalization with Arab states. Arab diplomats said leaders were wrestling with what sort of ties to offer the Israelis.

However, the Arab League and Egypt called Tuesday Sharon’s conditions imposed on Arafat for his attendance at the upcoming Arab summit "unacceptable". "What Israel wants is to impose restrictions on the capacity of president Arafat to express the aspirations of his people and that is unacceptable," League Secretary General Amr Mussa said.

"I don't think Arafat will accept such conditions which are anyway unacceptable for any Arab," Mussa said at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher. "Arafat must freely express the hopes of his people, their grievances and their claims," Mussa said.

"I don't think there are legal grounds for the conditions that Sharon is trying to impose on Arafat to take part in the summit," Maher stated.

"The Arab world has the right for the Palestinian president to be present and nobody can forbid his return to his country, Palestine," Maher stressed.

Mussa also dubbed as the conditions Cheney put in place before he would meet with the beleaguered Palestinian Authority chairman "arrogant".

"We think the U.S. vice president, as his country is one of the sponsors of the peace process, must meet both the Israeli and Palestinian sides," Maher added.

Cheney said he would only meet Arafat when a Tenet truce deal was put into effect, possibly as soon as next week.

Sharon's remarks and conditions contrasted strikingly with the contents of a letter written to him last week by Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, which was leaked Tuesday. In the letter, Annan condemned Israel’s killing of civilians and attacking medical officials which breach the fundamental principles and rules of international law, the Independent reported.

Annan pointed to the killing and injuring of civilians and the firing at hospitals and schools; in one case the fatal shooting of a U.N. guard who was escorting a wounded man to a hospital. All these actions violated the principle of protection of civilians, he said.

Annan, who is on record as having expressed sympathy before for Israel over its isolation at the U.N., said hundreds of innocent civilians had been killed and many buildings and homes destroyed. Tanks went into densely populated refugee camps and heavy explosives were dropped close to Palestinian schools, including one run by the United Nations for blind Palestinian children.

This also coincides with an aerial survey that was revealed Tuesday showing 34 new illegal Jewish settlements built in the occupied territories under Sharon, in violation of international law and stated public policy.

The Israeli pressure group Peace Now said an aerial survey of the West Bank showed that 34 new sites had been set up on Arab land since the election in February last year of Sharon, a life-long supporter of the settler movement.

The prolific construction of Jewish settlements is regarded by the international community as one of the most biggest obstacles to peace-making. But its efforts to stop the building have consistently failed.

The Mitchell report, the so-called "road map" back to negotiations, identified the settlements as a problem and called for a freeze on settlement building, including for so-called natural growth.

Sharon has repeatedly said he accepts the Mitchell plan, but for months he blocked its implementation.

The latest flurry of settlement building – which contravenes the Geneva Convention – violates a domestic agreement between Sharon and the Labor Party, his biggest coalition partner.