Explosions in Northern Israel Kill 3 : Mideast: Fatalities in two cities appear to be the bombers. Blasts seem aimed at undermining renewed peace process.

Twin car bombs exploded minutes apart in two northern Israeli cities Sunday, shattering an air of celebration scarcely 17 hours after Israel and the Palestinians signed a breakthrough peace agreement and less than an hour after the Israeli government approved the pact.

The blasts--in the crowded central district of Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, and in the Mediterranean port of Haifa--killed at least three people, probably the bombers, and injured several passersby. They were aimed clearly at undermining the just-defrosted Middle East peace process.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders immediately condemned the violence and pleaded for calm.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who the night before had basked triumphantly at a ceremony sealing the new peace deal, was quoted as saying he would not “tolerate terrorism.” The Palestinians’ chief negotiator in ongoing talks, Saeb Erekat, blamed “the enemies of peace” and reiterated his government’s “zero tolerance” for terrorism, while the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, issued a statement warning that “the timing of the explosions is aimed at destroying the entire peace process.”

The explosions will give ammunition to Israel’s right wing, already opposed to concessions to the Palestinians and skeptical of Barak’s claim that he can bring peace while ensuring the security of all Israelis.

Under the revised Wye accord signed in the wee hours Sunday in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheik, the Palestinians will receive additional land and the freedom of 350 Palestinians jailed for anti-Israel activities. The agreement also sets a one-year target date for a comprehensive settlement to decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sunday’s blasts marked a familiar, predictable pattern: acts of political violence timed to sabotage progress in peace. Two radical Palestinian organizations, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, remain violently opposed to negotiating with Israel and have frequently attacked Israelis with suicide bombers.

“There are elements who are very determined to disrupt the process through terror and murder. We won’t let them,” said Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Efraim Sneh. “We cannot dance to the flute of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. They want the process to end, we want it to continue. This is clear.”

The violence played to the deep-seated fears of many Israelis who have seen the threat of terrorism shape their security-conscious lives. But Barak seems committed to executing an agreement that he bargained hard to achieve--the first of his young government--and it is unlikely he will allow the bombings to interfere.

Packed with explosives and bearing fake license plates, the two cars involved in Sunday’s incidents were in busy areas during afternoon rush hour when they blew up, apparently prematurely. The vehicle in Tiberias was said to have crashed at high speed near a police station.

The blast on El Hadif Street in Tiberias, a popular resort town expected to fill up later this week for Jewish New Year, was the first. The second occurred minutes later in a parking lot in Haifa, a mixed Jewish-Arab city about 30 miles west.

Two men were killed in the Tiberias blast. Their charred, severed bodies hung halfway out of the crumpled car. Two passersby were injured, one critically. A single occupant of the car in Haifa was killed in that explosion.

As the original Wye accord was being negotiated in Maryland nearly a year ago, a Palestinian militant armed with grenades blasted his way through a crowd of soldiers and other Israelis waiting for a bus in the southern city of Beersheba. Nearly 60 people were injured.

At other critical times, suicide bombings at markets, on buses and in busy cafes have derailed peace talks and claimed scores of Israeli lives.

“If we don’t have personal security for Israelis,” Barak’s chief negotiator, attorney Gilad Sher, said Sunday, “I believe the peace process is in danger of collapse.”

Both Israeli and Palestinian security forces had warned in recent days that they expected Hamas militants or other extremists to stage an attack. Palestinian police reportedly have arrested dozens of Hamas activists in recent weeks, and in neighboring Jordan the government has also cracked down.

When the terms of the new agreement are fulfilled, Arafat will have received full or partial control of 42% of the West Bank. And he is obliged to combat terrorism and arrest terrorist suspects. But some Israelis fear that the release of prisoners will only replenish the supply of potential Palestinian car bombers.

Nevertheless, Barak’s Cabinet gave overwhelming approval, 21 to 2, to the revised Wye accord.

The political fallout from the explosions came quickly. The opposition Likud Party of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Barak defeated in May elections, called for an end to dealings with the Palestinians unless the bloodshed stops.

And within Barak’s own government, conservative members also were unnerved.

“The greater the terror, the smaller the peace,” admonished Yitzhak Levy, a leader of the National Religious Party who serves as Barak’s housing minister. “We cannot ignore this and simply move on to the next matter on the agenda.”

Tiberias Mayor Benjamin Kehati found himself drawn into the politics as well. As he was interviewed on Israeli television shortly after the explosion there, a crowd gathered around him and, in view of the cameras, began shouting, “Barak! Traitor!”

Other Tiberias residents were less hostile but frightened nevertheless.

“It’s a pity what’s happening now,” said Majad Dweiri, 35, an Israeli Arab who works as a desk clerk at the Meyouhas Youth Hostel. “There are people who want the peace, and there are people who want to stop the peace. We have to stop them. But how can we stop them? These people just want to die.”

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Times staff writer Rebecca Trounson contributed to this report.