Suicide Bomb Attack in Northern Israel.

By VOA News

A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber has killed himself and a policeman near a bus stop at an Arab village in northern Israel. Two others were wounded in the blast. Authorities said the bomber apparently detonated the explosives prematurely as he stood beside a police

Palestinian suicide bombers have often targeted Israeli commuter buses. The attacker may have intended to board a bus, before he was detected.

Wednesday's blast is the first attack inside Israel since early August. It came hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected a Palestinian offer to halt attacks on civilians inside Israel as part of a gradual ceasefire. Sharon told cabinet members there must be an end to all terror and violence before there can be any progress toward peace. After Wednesday's attack, Israel blamed the blast on what it called complete inaction by the Palestinian Authority.

Under the Palestinian ceasefire offer, leaders would encourage militants to end all attacks on civilians inside Israel. However, a truce would not cover Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, who are referred to by Palestinians as combatants in occupied Palestinian territories.

Earlier Wednesday, four people, including a suspected Israeli collaborator and two people near an Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank, were killed in separate incidents. The burned body of another Israeli was found near a West Bank garbage dump.

The Palestinian ceasefire offer came Tuesday at U.N. headquarters in New York, during a meeting between Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. In the talks, Shaath said he offered the ceasefire against civilians inside Israel in exchange for Israel agreeing to end the killings of Palestinian militants and destroying their family homes.

The Bush administration condemned Wednesday's suicide bombing in northern Israel. The suicide blast also drew condemnation from the State Department. Spokesman Richard Boucher said effective action by Palestinian authorities against terror cells is necessary if conditions in the West Bank and Gaza are to be improved. "We think the Palestinians need to take immediate steps to prevent actions such as these, to disrupt the infrastructure that supports violence and terror. And those efforts are necessary to improve the situation for Palestinians overall, particularly the humanitarian situation."