Israel has been on high alert after recent attacks
Israeli tanks have shelled a Palestinian checkpoint near the West Bank town of Jenin, hours after a suicide bomb attack northern Israel.
Israel had said there would be an immediate response after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a train station in the northern town of Binyamina, killing two Israelis, a male and female soldier, and injuring at least eight others.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the Binyamina bombing was "a cruel and terrible attack which shows that the Palestinian Authority has yet to decide to act against terror".
Islamic Jihad faxed a statement to foreign news agencies and local media in Beirut, saying it was responsible for the suicide bombing.
Israeli security forces have been on high alert after extremist militant Muslim groups claimed responsibility for several attacks since the beginning of the intifada, or the Palestinian uprising, last September.
Islamic Jihad revenge
Islamic Jihad's statement said the attack, in which Nidal Shadouf, 20, had blown himself up in a crowd of people near the train station, was in retaliation for Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian militants suspected of planning attacks on Israelis.
"We warn the leaders of the Zionist enemy against any further idiocy or aggression against our people, and assure them that there are tens of suicide bombers ready to blow themselves up at any moment, anywhere in our usurped homeland of Palestine," the statement warned.
Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast and police closed off the area, while explosives experts looked for more bombs.
In helicopters and on the ground, police hunted for a green Opel car, which is believed to have dropped off the suicide bomber at the scene of the blast.
Witnesses said they saw a car draw up near the train station, the BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem, Frank Gardner, reports.
They said a man got out of the car, walked towards the station, and then blew himself up.
Arafat blamed
Israeli Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was to blame for the attack.
"Arafat is sitting somewhere and smiling... saying that you can talk with me, but I am hitting you," Mr Rivlin told Israeli television.
The explosion followed a day of heavy clashes in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday, in which several people were injured and Palestinian police posts were destroyed when Israeli tanks moved into the Palestinian controlled area of the city.
The blast also came amid heightened security arrangements for the Maccabiah Games, an international Jewish sporting event which takes place in Israel once every four years and opened Monday evening in Jerusalem.
US calls for restraint
The United States condemned the attack and urged restraint on both sides.
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the suicide bombing today that killed at least two and wounded several others," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a conference call to reporters.
"We call upon the Palestinian leadership to unambiguously condemn this heinous act and take steps to bring to justice those responsible for actions such as these," he said.
"In addition we
encourage the Israeli
Government to exercise
continued restraint and
not allow the cycle of
violence to continue.
There can be no military solution to this
conflict," he said.
-- Anonymous, July 16, 2001