Bomb Kills 1, Injures 9 Aboard Taxi in Israel

An Israeli was killed and nine other people were injured Thursday when a taxi, suspected of carrying a Palestinian militant armed with a bomb, exploded at a police roadblock in northern Israel.

Authorities said the casualties were Arab and Jewish occupants of the minivan cab.

The afternoon explosion, according to Israeli security officials, reflected a growing phenomenon in which Palestinian militants are crossing from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to conduct attacks within Israel.

The bombing came amid increasing clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants who, Israel security officials say, are taking advantage of a leadership vacuum as outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak prepares to hand power to Ariel Sharon, the rightist leader reviled by Palestinians.

Police said they believe that the man behind the latest attack also left a briefcase bomb Wednesday near a fast-food restaurant in downtown Tel Aviv. Police evacuated the restaurant and safely detonated the bomb.

On Thursday, police received intelligence information that the man was planning a second attack and that he was traveling north from Tel Aviv, Israel Radio reported.

Police set up a series of roadblocks, including one at the Mei Ami junction near Umm al Fahm, an Israeli Arab city 40 miles northeast of Tel Aviv. As officers inspected a white minivan that had rolled up to the roadblock, the bomb exploded, blasting off the minivan’s sides and tearing most of the roof from the vehicle’s frame.

Daniel Drossier, a truck driver who had been waiting behind the taxi, had watched as police asked the taxi’s occupants to produce their identification.

“After a second or two, [the vehicle] exploded,” Drossier said. “It was a very large explosion.”

The dead man was identified as Claude Knafo, 27, of the Israeli city of Tiberias.

Israel Radio reported that the man suspected of detonating the bomb is a member of the radical group Hamas and a resident of the West Bank town of Janin. He suffered injuries in the blast, according to the radio report.

Police detained an Israeli woman, a recent Russian immigrant, for questioning. The suspect spent the night at her home, police said.

Before Thursday’s bombing, authorities in Tel Aviv and central Israel were on high alert, anticipating that militants would try to strike again in light of Wednesday’s foiled attempt.

Earlier in the day, police set up roadblocks throughout central Israel, inspecting vehicles and suspicious packages in them.

An unconfirmed radio report said the taxi, which was heading to Nazareth from Tel Aviv, had been under police surveillance for about 30 miles.

In recent weeks, Israeli intelligence had been warned that Palestinian militants were planning to “bring a car bomb inside Israel and blow it up,” according to Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh.

The first attack after that warning occurred in central Jerusalem, two days after Sharon’s resounding election victory over Barak. In that Feb. 8 incident, two powerful blasts from an explosives-laden car narrowly missed dozens of yeshiva students in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

Sneh, who is lobbying to become defense minister, said he holds Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat responsible for Thursday’s attack because Arafat isn’t controlling members of the radical Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups.

“As long as activists of Hamas and [Islamic] Jihad are walking around free in the West Bank and Gaza, the responsibility is of those who let them walk around freely,” Sneh said. “We see the Palestinian Authority as responsible for the situation.”

More than 400 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed since the Palestinian uprising broke out five months ago.