Islamic militants have blown up a car bomb near a school in an Israeli coastal town. The explosion occurred only hours before Israeli and Palestinian officials were due hold a further round of talks on security co-operation. The bomb exploded this afternoon in Netanya, minutes after students had left the building. It was the second such attack there in less than two weeks.
Police said that no one was seriously injured, but that six people had suffered from shock. The radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the attack. The group has been behind numerous bombings against Israeli targets in recent years.
The talks due to be held today by Israeli and Palestinian officials follow the failure to make any progress at an initial session last night. The Palestinians, after the meeting in the West Bank, said that they had rejected an Israeli demand for an unconditional ceasefire.
They have described Israel's own self-proclaimed ceasefire as a sham. They say that the security talks will fail unless they have a guarantee that Israel will stop all building work at Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories.
Three days of diplomatic efforts by the new United States Middle East envoy William Burns have not yet persuaded either side to implement the Mitchell report for ending the violence. The report calls for an immediate halt to violence, a freeze on settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories and tougher action by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority against "terrorism".
