After Latest Bombing, Israelis Want Arafat Stripped of Powers
The blast came on the 35th anniversary of the start of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, which resulted in Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and it came a day after George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, met with Mr. Arafat in a bid to persuade him to reform his security agencies and crack down on violence.

The extremist group Islamic Jihad, an opponent of any peace treaty that preserves a Jewish state here, claimed responsibility for the bombing, which also injured dozens of people.

Palestinian terrorists, committed to continuing the conflict with Israel, have repeatedly greeted high-level peace initiatives by the Bush administration with bursts of violence.

After today's bombing, right-wing ministers in Mr. Sharon's government called for Israeli forces to fully reoccupy the West Bank.

Megiddo, a strategic crossroads bloodied for 4,000 years by battles among Egyptians, Israelites, Greeks, Crusaders and others, gave rise to the concept of Armageddon, some archeologists say.

The stretch of road passing through this junction skirts the West Bank and a few Israeli Arab villages, and it has been the scene of several previous attacks. Mickey Harel, the driver of the bus, who escaped by jumping at a window, said he had had three previous brushes with terrorist violence.

Today's suicide bombing was the sixth suicide attack in Israel since a large-scale military offensive in the West Bank in April, which Mr. Sharon said was intended to uproot the "terrorist infrastructure" in Palestinian cities and refugee camps. After a lull in attacks during and immediately following the offensive, they have now resumed, continuing even as Israeli troops have been conducting daily raids into Palestinian cities and villages to carry out arrests and uncover explosives.
After Latest Bombing, Israelis Want Arafat Stripped of Powers