A wounded Israeli woman is evacuated following an explosion in Hadera on Wednesday. (Reuters)

GAZA CITY, 27 October 2005 — A Palestinian bomber blew himself up yesterday in an open-air market, killing himself and five Israelis in the deadliest attack in Israel in more than three months.

The bombing stifled faint peace hopes following Israel’s Gaza pullout and embarrassed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who only hours earlier had scolded militant groups for repeatedly violating a truce.

The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, saying the attack was to avenge the killing of its West Bank leader by Israeli forces this week.

At the open-air market in the central Israeli town of Hadera, the bloodied body of a man in his 50s lay on the ground amid scattered fruits and mangled metal shards. Rescue workers covered other bodies with blankets, walking on pools of blood and shattered glass.

In the blast 30 were wounded, nine seriously, rescue service officials said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan condemned the bombing. “The Palestinian Authority needs to do more to end the violence and prevent terrorist attacks from being carried out,” he said. “The terrorist attacks that take place only undermine the leadership of President Abbas and undermine his principle of one authority, one law, one gun.”

Islamic Jihad said the bombing was to avenge the killing of Luay Saadi, leader of the group’s military wing in the West Bank. Saadi was killed by Israeli soldiers closing in on his hide-out in the Tulkarm refugee camp on Monday. In Gaza yesterday evening, dozens of masked Islamic Jihad fighters held a news conference where they said they were celebrating the attack, a “great victory as a message to our beloved Palestinian people and Islamic and Arab nations.”

Abbas, in a speech before Parliament, lashed out at the militants, saying they had no right to violate the cease-fire selectively. “No one has the right to respond here and there, unilaterally,” he said.

Later, Abbas condemned the bomb attack, saying in a statement, “It harms Palestinian interests and could widen the cycle of violence, chaos, extremism and bloodshed.”

“It is not permitted for anyone to take the law into their hands,” he added.

Yesterday’s bomber was identified as a 20-year-old resident of the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh. His name, Hassan Abu Zeid, was announced over a bullhorn in Qabatiyeh, residents said. Israeli police said the man had been standing in line at a shop before blowing himself up.

His parents were evacuating their home, fearing an Israeli response. His mother, Raqaiah, wailed, “Where are you, my dear son?” Relatives said he worked as a blacksmith with his father and disappeared after morning prayers yesterday.

The last bombing in Israel, on Aug. 28 in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, killed only the bomber. Before that, a July 12 suicide blast at a shopping mall in the coastal town of Netanya killed five Israelis.

Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last month has raised hopes for a return to Mideast peacemaking after five years of bloodshed. However, the sides have failed to capitalize on the pullout’s momentum, and yesterday bombing appeared to hurt prospects for a return to talks.

Israeli officials pointed the finger at Abbas’ government for failing to control extremists. “The Palestinian Authority talks but doesn’t do anything,” Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio.

Hadera, located between Tel Aviv and the northern city of Haifa, is flanked to the east by Israel’s West Bank wall.

— With input from agencies