Bus No. 19, and hope, blasted in Jerusalem

After a period of relative calm here, a wind of violence has swept in like a destructive old weather pattern. Palestin-ians say there has been a steady stream of violence against them, even though it has been four months since such a deadly suicide bombing. In the Gaza Strip a day earlier, the Israeli army raided an enclave of Islamic Jihad - a Muslim militant group which rejects all peace negotiations with Israel - and in the ensuing battle, killed eight Palestinians, at least three of whom appeared to be innocent bystanders.

The clashes and Thursday's suicide attack all came within hours of a key meeting with two senior US officials - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield and John Wolf, President Bush's special envoy - who were here to twist arms in the direction of implementing the Bush Administration's road map for Middle East peace.

The Israeli government, however, dismissed suggestions that Thursday's bombing was planned to coincide with either the percolating diplomatic activity or with the prisoner swap. The only reason more bombings have not taken place in recent weeks, Israeli officials argue, is that they have succeeded in thwarting them. "It's not really connected," says Jonathan Peled, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry. "It takes weeks of preparation and planning for such a thing."

But that was not the image left behind by Ali Munir Jaara, the Palestinian policeman who blew himself up Thursday. Masked men provided his final handwritten words, left in a notebook, to a local television station in Bethlehem. "I have carried out this operation for the sake of God and in reply to the crimes of ... Sharon, and specifically for the massacre in the neighborhood of Zeytoun, in Gaza," Mr. Jaara wrote. "We say to Sharon that this is a part of a chain of suicide operations, and that coming operations will be much greater." The note was signed on behalf of the al-Aqsa Brigades, which is an offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

At the Aida Palestinian refugee camp, near the village of Beit Jala near Bethlehem, local well-wishers came to visit the Jaara family. He had given no indication, family members said, of what he had set out to do. "My son was very committed to his job with the police. He went to work and came home. He was very committed to religion as well, but I didn't expect him to do this," says Munir Jaara, a father of seven.

But Israeli officials say they expect more Palestinians to follow suit - and point to Thursday's attack as proof that Israel needs the controversial wall it is building through the West Bank. "This attack underscores the need for a security fence," says David Baker, a spokesman for Prime Minister Sharon. While Israel argues that the wall is already keeping out many infiltrators, Palestinians and international critics say it is cutting through the heart of Palestinian society.

• Samir Zedan in Beit Jala, West Bank, contributed to this report.

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