Two bombings injured more than a dozen people yesterday as a suicide attacker blew up a restaurant in a town north of Tel Aviv and a device exploded under a school bus on a cherry-picking expedition near Hebron.
The attacks occurred despite stringent new restrictions on the movements of Palestinians on the West Bank which appear to have had little effect.
They came in a day of violent incidents in which four Palestinians died, two of them alleged collaborators whose bodies were dumped in Hebron.
The most serious attack came yesterday evening when the suicide bomber struck in a restaurant in Herzliya, injuring nine diners and killing himself.
Rescue services spokesman Doron Kotler said about 15 people had been injured, and all were taken to hospital.
Joel Leyden, who arrived at the scene minutes after the blast, said the target was a small Middle East-style restaurant in the well-to-do town. He said that police had found a second bomb on the attacker's body and were dismantling it.
A few hours earlier a bomb exploded beneath a school bus as 40 pupils left an orchard near the settlement of Kiryat Arba, close to Hebron, and were heading towards the vehicle. Three students, all pupils at a nearby Jewish seminary and aged about 15, were injured, one seriously.
"They were working on a plot of land and when they finished their work and opened the gate, an explosive device went off," an Israeli police spokesman said.
Kiryat Arba is near Hebron, which is divided between more than 100,000 Palestinians and a small enclave of a few hun dred Jewish settlers. Settlers there have frequently been targeted by Palestinians waging a 20-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The latest bombings coincided with a trip to Washington by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, who received strong backing in a meeting with President George Bush.
David Baker, an official in Mr Sharon's office, said: "The Herzliya terror attack is another example of the Palestinians' intention to commit murder for the sake of murder."
Israeli forces have encircled main Palestinian population centres, attempting to stop the infiltration by attackers.
( June 12, 2002)
