Middle-East peace stumbles; 5 killed in suicide attack in Israel

In what could dash new hopes for progress in Middle-East peace process, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a shopping mall in the north Israeli town of Netanya on Monday, killing nearly five people and injuring 35 others.

Police sources said the bomber, belonging to the Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade that claimed responsibility for the attack, blew himself up in a line of people going through a customary security check at the mall's entrance.

Lebanon-based Hezbollah's television station Al-Manar, said that the jihadi group's military arm the Jerusalem Brigades claimed responsibility in a telephone call to the station.

Ambulances were seen tearing away to the Sharon shopping centre in the seaside city of Natanya, which has been a frequent target of suicide bombings in the five-year-old Palestinian uprising due to its close proximity to the West Bank.

Monday's attack was the fifth since the February cease-fire declaration by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and the first suicide bombing in Israel since October 26, when five Israelis were killed after a 20-year-old Palestinian blew himself up at a stand in the town of Hadera.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called for an emergency meeting Monday in the wake of the blast.

With PTI inputs