MOVING TOWARD PEACE : Bomb Damages Israeli Embassy in London; Another Hits Jewish Center : Terrorism: Woman sought in mission blast, which injured at least 13. No group claims responsibility, but officials blame Islamic extremists.

Authorities late Tuesday were searching for a middle-aged woman who was said to be fashionably attired, carried a Harrods shopping bag and drove a gray Audi--and whose trunk carried a bomb that exploded outside the Israeli Embassy here and injured more than a dozen people.

Early today, a second car bomb exploded outside a building housing Jewish organizations in north London, the Associated Press reported, injuring five slightly.

The first blast, which came hours after Jordan and Israel signed an accord in Washington ending their 46-year state of war, occurred shortly after noon in front of the embassy in the busy Kensington section of West London. Windows were shattered in a wide area by the explosion.

Four members of the Royal Family were in nearby Kensington Palace, where windows were broken: Princess Margaret; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and Princess Michael of Kent. All were uninjured. Princess Diana, who also lives there, was vacationing in Spain.

While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in Washington, blamed Islamic terrorists, saying they were trying to wreck the Middle East peace process.

He said the world should wake up to the danger posed by terrorists, declaring: “There is no doubt in my mind we face a wave of extreme Islamic radical terrorist movements in the Arab Muslim countries. They have infrastructure all over the world.”

He cited the July 18 Buenos Aires blast, which left at least 96 people dead in a building that housed several of that city’s Jewish organizations; at least 29 people were killed in a bomb attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992. Israel has suggested that Iran may have been involved in both incidents.

Fears of a worldwide terrorist campaign to disrupt the Mideast peace process also intensified Tuesday with Panamanian officials’ announcement that a commuter plane crash last week that killed 21 people, more than half of them Jews, was caused by a bomb.

In London, the last anti-Israeli attack occurred in 1982--the attempted assassination of Ambassador Shlomo Argov outside a hotel on Park Lane; that incident disabled him and helped prompt the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Tuesday’s blast was heard as far as eight miles away around central and western London. Victims--some cut by flying glass, others in shock--received quick assistance from firefighters at Kensington station around the corner from the explosion site. There were no reported fatalities, and the final tally of the injured was put at 13 in some news service accounts, 14 in others.

The blast was felt at the nearby Royal Albert Hall, where a ticket-seller remarked: “It was such a loud bang, we all thought it must have gone off right outside. It was terrifying. The whole building shook.”

The Israeli Embassy is on Kensington Palace Gardens, a tree-shaded, semiprivate street that is home to several other major diplomatic facilities, including the Russian Embassy. The north-south street has gates--generally open during the day--and police checkpoints at both ends. Authorities were investigating what appeared to be a serious lapse of security.

British police guard the checkpoints at the end of the street; the Israeli Embassy has its own security guards at the entrance.

Nevertheless, the woman--whom Police Cmdr. David Tucker described as having long hair and being of “Mediterranean appearance”--managed to park her car next to the embassy and walk away. The guards even got a good look at her, although authorities insisted that the woman did not attract attention to herself. Police said they were preparing to examine her car when the explosion occurred.

“One office (in the embassy) was completely wrecked, and the main stairway has collapsed,” said Rachel Gordon, Israeli Embassy press officer. “There are four floors and it seems like the roof and ceiling on the fourth floor have also collapsed.”

Steve Partridge, who was 20 yards away when the bomb exploded, said: “The street was full of bits of vehicle. It felt like bits of glass were flying everywhere. All the windows in the surrounding buildings were smashed out.” Partridge, who served with the British Army in Northern Ireland, estimated the bomb to contain about 30 pounds of explosives, which was confirmed later by police.

The second blast occurred at 12:46 a.m. today outside Belfour House in the north Finchley area, eight miles north of the Israeli Embassy, police said.

The building houses Israeli and Jewish organizations, including the Joint Israel Appeal, a charity fund-raising group that supports causes in Israel and in Britain’s Jewish community.

Mike Whine, a director of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said after the first blast that he was shocked and horrified--but not surprised--by the attack. He said he thought it likely that Middle Eastern terrorists were responsible and said it was possible there was a link to the bombing of the Jewish community headquarters in Buenos Aires.

“We’re already at a fairly high state of alert,” he said. “We’re in constant touch with police.” He said the board had asked police to ban parking outside Jewish buildings but were still waiting for a response.

Abdul Kader, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization in London, declared: “Our first impression is that this could have been the same people that carried out the bombing in Buenos Aires and that they are carrying out a series of bomb attacks. I can be certain they are not Palestinians. Even those Palestinians who are against the peace agreement have pledged not to take any action like this.”