EU Foreign Ministers, meeting near Brussels, have expressed their concern at today's violence in Israel. At least seven people have been killed in three separate incidents in the region.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs is on his way to Cairo tonight, at the start of a week-long tour of the region during which he will meet Israel's foreign minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Brian Cowen's visit is in preparation for Ireland's chairmanship of the UN Security Council next month.
Washington has condemned today's attacks in the Middle East and urged Palestinians to do more to stop them. The US National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, said the violence against innocent civilians was senseless.
At least five people were killed and about 70 injured in two suicide bomb attacks in Israel. The explosions took place in the northern town of Nahariya, and at a crossroads near the coastal city of Netanya.
The Muslim fundamentalist Hamas organisation claimed responsibility for the bombing in the coastal city. In a statement carried on the Internet, the Palestinian group said its armed wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam brigades, carried out the attack. The blast came as passengers were pouring off a train which had just arrived from Tel Aviv.
The bomber was seen leaving a store and moving into the middle of the crowd just before the explosion. Two of the wounded were listed as in a moderate condition and the others were lightly wounded, a spokesman at Nahariya hospital said.
The attack came after two Israelis were killed and three wounded when Palestinians opened fire with automatic weapons on a bus carrying schoolteachers near Jiftlik, north of Jericho in the West Bank earlier in the morning.
The Palestinians opened fire from a car which overtook the bus at the Jiftlik crossing, Israeli public radio reported. Israel responded to the attacks with helicopter attacks on the West Bank towns of Jericho, Ramallah and El Bireh.
The violence has further diminished the prospects of arranging talks on a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, was due to give his response today to an offer of a meeting this week with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres.
