Bomb Explodes at Israel's Biggest Fuel Depot
A bomb attached to a tanker truck exploded Thursday at Israel's biggest fuel depot in what police said was likely a Palestinian terror attack. The blast ripped through the driver's cabin and sent fuel pouring onto the tarmac, but the fire was quickly extinguished and no one was hurt.

Palestinian militias have carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israeli cities, but the blast at the fuel depot appeared to signal a shift toward new targets. This week, security officials said they uncovered a plot to explode trucks laden with a ton of explosives under the twin Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv, Israel's tallest buildings.

The fuel depot is located close to three major highways and surrounded by residential areas. ``A huge disaster has been averted,'' said Yossi Sedbon, the Tel Aviv police chief. The truck was parked close to other flammable equipment, including a massive fuel storage tank.

There was no claim of responsibility for Thursday's explosion at the Pi-Glilot fuel depot, but Sedbon, the Tel Aviv police chief, said that ``all the findings indicate that it was a terrorist attack.''

Sedbon said the explosive charge had been planted on the underside of a tanker truck used for transporting diesel fuel. The tanker had just entered the depot to take on a load of fuel when the bomb went off and the vehicle caught fire, destroying the driver's cabin.

``There was a very powerful explosion,'' Nissim Amir, the driver of another truck, told Israel Radio. ``All the fuel poured out onto the driver who was loading the tanker. We all ran to the scene and grabbed fire extinguishers.''

At the time of the explosion, the tanker was parked next to a dozen other vehicles, and about 100 yards from a huge fuel storage tank. ``An explosion in such a sensitive place with such a huge store of fuel would cause much more significant damage than the explosion of a single tanker,'' Sedbon said.

Sedbon declined comment on radio reports that a cellular phone had been used to set off the bomb. He said police were checking the route of the tanker truck, and ordered all tanker trucks to be searched for explosives.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html