Gaza suicide attack wounds four Israelis

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at Gaza's main crossing into Israel yesterday, wounding four Israelis in the first such attack since Israel won US backing for a unilateral Gaza pullout plan.

A top Islamic militant called for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers to trade them for Palestinian prisoners, as Palestinian anger mounted over President George W. Bush's related decision to allow Israel to keep some parts of the West Bank.

The Hamas group, behind scores of suicide attacks in a three-and-a-half-year old Palestinian uprising, and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed joint responsibility for the Erez crossing bombing.

Arafat vowed Palestinians would press on with their struggle after Bush's "guarantees" to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this week that also rejected any right of return for Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel.

"The Israeli government that is plotting conspiracies here and (in the United States) in order to steal our land... will only find heroic steadfastness from our people," said Arafat, who denies Israeli accusations he foments violence.

Sharon says his plan for a withdrawal from Gaza and four small settlements in the West Bank was necessary as a US-backed peace "road map" was stalled because Palestinian leaders had failed to crack down on militants.

"The terror attack in Erez is a clear indication that Israel has no partner and is compelled to take the necessary unilateral steps," said David Baker, an official in Sharon's office.

Palestinians welcome any Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, where some 7,500 Jewish settlers live among well over 1.3 million Palestinians. But ruling Gaza is seen as no consolation for losing chunks of the West Bank, which is 16 times bigger.

More than 230,000 Jewish settlers live alongside some two million Palestinians in the West Bank - seized together with Gaza by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said his government wanted more details from the United States on exactly what it promised Israel on settlements, regarded by most of the world as illegal though Israel disputes this.

European countries have appeared ill at ease with Bush's comments and also want to revive the road map to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the European Union tried to defuse tension with Washington yesterday, saying Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip could be "a significant step towards the implementation of the 'road map'."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the Quartet behind the road map - the EU, the United States, Russia and the United Nations - would meet in early May. Officials said the meeting would probably be on May 4 in New York.

Israeli military sources said the suicide attack occurred near the entrance to the Erez crossing into a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zone, on the Palestinian side of the border.

A caller identified the bomber as Fadi al-Amudi of the al-Aqsa Brigades. He worked in the industrial zone like hundreds of Palestinians. Yesterday's attack was close to where a mother-of-two bomber killed four Israelis on January 14.

Before Bush's new policy statement, Palestinian militants had already been plotting bloody revenge for Israel's killing of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin in Gaza on March 22.

Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated across the West Bank and Gaza Strip to demand freedom for loved ones held behind bars by Israel. An estimated 6,000 Palestinian prisoners are held by Israel.