Attacks in Jerusalem, Gaza kill 23

A Palestinian suicide bomber killed 16 people and injured more than 100 on a Jerusalem bus yesterday to avenge an Israeli bid to kill a Hamas leader; Israel struck back within minutes, killing seven Palestinians.

US President George W. Bush, watching his "road map" peace plan engulfed in a new cycle of killing within a week of its launch, condemned the bombing and said: "I call upon all the free world... to use every ounce of their power to prevent them."

The Islamic militant group Hamas said it dispatched the bomber, disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, to carry out the revenge attack. The blast tore through a crowded bus near the city's main open-air market, sending bodies and limbs flying.

Minutes later, Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles in Gaza, killing two Hamas members and five bystanders and injuring 35 people.

Bush launched the peace plan just last week with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas, in the hope of ending 32 months of bloodshed.

But strike and bloody counter-strike have followed. Hamas said the Jerusalem bombing was its response to Israel's failed attempt to kill Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, a Hamas co-founder, in a missile attack in Gaza on Tuesday.

Yesterday, Shirli Rafael, a 25-year-old municipal worker, rushed to the scene of the bus bombing but was so shocked by what she saw that she froze in her tracks.

"I saw dead people. Severed hands and fingers lay at my feet. I saw a lot of women covered with blood - their skin was scorched. There was a headless body near the door," she said.

Police said the bomb was packed with nails for maximum effect. Body parts and pools of blood littered the sidewalk. The vehicle's windows were shattered and its roof partly blown off.

At the same time, scenes of carnage unfolded in Palestinian-ruled Gaza City, where Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a car moments after the Jerusalem bombing.

Hamas identified one of the dead militants as Tito Massaoud, a leader of its military wing. An Israeli security source said he was involved in the launching of home-made Qassam rockets against southern Israel and Jewish settlements in Gaza.