Israel vows retaliation

Israel has vowed fierce reprisals after at least 19 people were killed and over 100 were wounded, 24 seriously, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a Netanya hotel.

The Palestinian last night walked into the dining room of the hotel, in the centre of the coastal city, where a large number of people were participating in the Passover service, and detonated an explosive device.

The bomber entered the hotel through its main door, at the time when the armed guard was carrying out a security check of the hotel grounds, Israel Radio reported. He was carrying a large bag which apparently contained the explosive device.

The islamic militant group Hamas took responsibility for the attack. The group identified the bomber as Abdel-Basset Odeh, a member of its military wing, the Iz a Din al-Kassam Brigades, from the West Bank city of Tul Karm, which is six miles from Netanya.

"It is a jihad, victory or martyrdom," Hamas said in the statement.

Israel's leaders were outraged at the audacity of the attack on people who were celebrating one of the holiest and most sacred Jewish holidays. Gideon Meir, an Israeli government spokesman, called the attack a "Passover massacre".

Israel vowed a hard response, and officials suggested that the mission of General Anthony Zinni, the US mediator working here to negotiate a ceasefire, had been severely undermined.

But in Washington, the State Department said General Zinni would remain in the area and continue working. President Bush called the attack "cold-blooded killing" and said such "callous" acts must stop.

The attack came as Arab leaders met in Beirut to discuss Saudi Arabia's plan for peace in the region, a plan that Hamas officials have said they reject. The attack was timed to deal a blow to the peace initiatives.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack, saying it was intended to undermine the Zinni mission and the Arab summit meeting. On television earlier today, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, praised his people for their uprising against Israel but insisted: "We are against killing civilians on both sides."

At the attack site, Uzi Landau, minister of internal security, said: "Arafat has had his time. Now it is time for us to fight back." Just behind him the bodies of six people killed in the blast lay on the ground in white plastic body bags.

The explosion gouged a deep crater in the floor, hurled chairs and tables out of windows on the other side of the room and shattered windows along the beach-front Park Hotel. The ceiling had collapsed in places. Security officials on the scene said they worried that the building might collapse.

Body parts and pieces of furniture were scattered around the room and across the driveway 50 yards from the blast.

Among the seriously injured were a 45-year-old man and a five-year-old boy, both with head injuries. Security forces launched an investigation into how the bomber had succeeded in entering the city despite the increased security over the Pesach holiday.

Given the extent of the damage, experts estimated that the bomber was carrying at least 40lbs of explosives, far more than Israelis had seen in bombing attacks in the 18-month-old Palestinian uprising.

A Hamas spokesman, quoted in the Israeli media, said the attack was intended to undermine the Beirut meeting. "The Palestinian people do not want to see Zinni succeed in his assignment to the region," said the spokesman, Mahmoud al-Zahar. "The bombing tonight came as a reaction to what is happening in Beirut. We want to remind the Arabs and the Muslims what resisting the occupation means."

Witnesses said the suicide bomber, a 23-year-old Palestinian who had worked in Netanya hotels in the past, walked past a security guard at the front door, wandered through the lobby for a minute or two, apparently studying his target, until someone noticed him and started shouting.

Then he darted into the dining room and set off the bomb. Prime minister Ariel Sharon and his military leaders have been planning for a possible broad military action against the Palestinian Authority for more than a week.