BBC Monday, 30 July, 2001, 10:17 GMT 11:17 UK Fury over West Bank blast

Israel and the Palestinians are locked in a furious dispute over the cause of an explosion that killed six Palestinian activists in the West Bank.

Palestinian security sources say an Israeli tank fired at the building in the village of Fara, deliberately targeting the men.

Israel has denied any involvement, saying the men were blown up when a bomb they were preparing went off prematurely.

Palestinian militants have vowed a "rapid and painful" response to the blast which they say was an Israeli assassination.

Palestinian officials say the men belonged to the Aqsa Brigade, an armed faction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and were on Israel's most-wanted list.

Last week, the group said it was responsible for killing an Israeli teenager near the Palestinian-controlled West Bank town of Ramallah.

'Work accident'

A Reuters news agency cameraman who visited the site of the Fara blast said there was no evidence of Israeli tank shells.

An eyewitness said the roof of the building was blown off, indicating the explosion happened inside, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof told Israel Army Radio: "According to the information I have, it was a work accident. It's not the first time the Palestinians claim we killed a squad."

Palestinian officials say Israeli forces have killed more than 40 Palestinian activists since the start of the current uprising last year.

BBC correspondent Paul Wood says such attacks are usually directed against militant groups like Hamas or Islamic Jihad rather than the mainstream Fatah movement.

But, he says, even if blame for this latest incident is wrongly attributed, the deaths of so many Fatah members directly under orders from Yasser Arafat will be see by the Palestinians as an escalation in the conflict.

According to our correspondent, Israeli security forces believe a major new bombing campaign by Palestinian militants against Israel might be under way.

Monday saw a small bomb explode in an Israeli supermarket in west Jerusalem, causing no injuries but damaging the store.

The day before, a car bomb partially exploded in an underground parking lot at an apartment block in northern Jerusalem.

Two people suffered shock in the blast, which happened in the Jewish neighbourhood of Pisgat Ze'ev.

Israeli police say the bomb could have brought down the whole building if it had properly detonated.

Clashes in Jerusalem

Palestinian officials, meanwhile, have said they hold Israel fully responsible for trouble in Jerusalem which erupted on Sunday at the holy site known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif or the Noble Sanctuary.

Eighteen Palestinians and 15 policemen were hurt when Israeli police stormed the site after Palestinians threw stones at Jews praying at the nearby Western Wall.

In a statement, the Palestinian leadership accused Israel of "violating" Islam's third holiest site.

It said Israel had shown contempt for Arab and Muslim feelings after a group of Messianic Jews tried to enter Jerusalem's Old City to lay the foundation stone of a third Jewish Temple.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2001