KARKUR JUNCTION (Israel), Oct 21: A suicide car bomb ripped apart a packed bus in northern Israel, killing at least 16 people and wounding nearly 50 others, jeopardizing the latest peace push by Washington and Europe.

The Islamic Jihad movement claimed the blast in an anonymous telephone call from the West Bank town of Jenin, saying it was a suicide attack.

Yasser Arafat condemned the bombing, saying he was against “the killing of civilians on both sides”, but an Israeli official said Arafat bore ultimate responsibility for the attack and said no peace initiative could go forward as long as he led the Palestinians.

The White House and the European Union (EU) also denounced the blast, which coincided with a peace mission to the region by Washington’s top Middle East envoy, William Burns, aimed at drumming up support for an international plan to set up a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.

A jeep-type vehicle loaded with between 60 and 80 kilograms of explosives and cans of petrol and with two people aboard blew up beside the bus near the town of Pardes Hanna, between Tel Aviv and Haifa, police said.

Bus driver Haim Avraham said from his hospital bed that the blast came as he had stopped to take on passengers at Karkur Junction, just south of Pardes Hanna, near the coastal town of Hardera.

“A car exploded alongside us and the whole bus was thrown in the air,” he said while talking to a television network.

He said there were some 30 passengers aboard the Egged company bus, which was on its way from Kiryat Shmona, in the north, to Tel Aviv.

Passenger Michael Yitzhaki, who was sitting behind the driver, told public radio he saw people burn to death inside the bus.

“The bus burst into flames — apparently the gas tank ignited, but what was even worse was that the soldiers’ ammunition began to explode and the whole bus was completely engulfed in flames. To my horror, the people we couldn’t get out burned to death inside the bus,” Yitzhaki said.

The attack occurred less than 10 kilometres from the West Bank, where the army has reoccupied most towns in a bid to foil Palestinian attacks.

The explosion came as progress was claimed on a “roadmap” for a peaceful settlement to the two-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict being drawn up by the diplomatic quartet of the United States, Russia, EU and the United Nations.

But Zalman Shoval, Sharon’s foreign policy advisor, said: “Before we can embark on any roadmap, there must be an absolute end to terror and violence and this is contingent on a change in the Palestinian leadership.

“We hold him (Arafat) responsible by direct commission or omission” for the latest bombing, he said.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he had conveyed his “personal distress and my strongest condemnation, which is total and unreserved” to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who was in Luxembourg for talks with the 15-nation bloc.

“Difficult as it might seem at times such as these, what Israelis and Palestinians need more than ever is less blood, and more commitment to re-establish a fruitful cooperation that should lead to dialogue and peace,” Solana said.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, “The administration condemns the most recent attack in Israel. Peace must be pursued and the violence must be stopped.”

Burns, the assistant secretary of state for the Near East, is due in Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday as part of a 12-stop tour.—AFP