Israel general predicts ceasefire

General Yaalon was speaking before the latest suicide attack

The Israeli army chief of staff has predicted a ceasefire with Palestinian militants could happen within weeks.

Lieutenant-General Moshe Yaalon, said he believed violence between Israelis and Palestinians had reached its peak.

His made his remarks in a newspaper interview conducted before attacks on both sides on Thursday.

A suicide bomber killed four Israelis near Tel Aviv and an Israeli missile strike left five Palestinians dead in Gaza on Thursday.

The Tel Aviv blast was the first Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel for more than two months and prompted Israel to impose a total closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli defence and intelligence officials met on Friday to discuss a response. However, no statement was expected from the meeting.

Violence 'peaked'

General Yaalon's comment that a ceasefire with Palestinian militant groups was a possibility within weeks was contained in an interview with Israel's best-selling newspaper, Yediot Ahronot.

The chief of staff said he believed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would continue in some form for many years.

However, he said he thought that the peak of violent confrontation had passed.

General Yaalon indicated that he believed the main Palestinian militant group, Hamas, had deliberately been holding back from attacks within Israel for several weeks.

He said that was because of Israel's policy of targeting and killing Hamas leaders earlier in the year.

He also repeated his view that Israel should do more to ease the plight of Palestinians unconnected to militant groups.

In October, General Yaalon caused a political furore when he said in off-the-record media briefings that Israel's treatment of Palestinians was causing a humanitarian crisis.

He was revealed as the source of the remarks in the ensuing political furore.

The BBC's Simon Wilson in Jerusalem says that although the general was speaking before the latest outbreak of violence, his office has not moved to distance itself from the ceasefire comments.

'Wanton act'

The interview with General Yaalon was published after one of the bloodiest days of Israeli-Palestinian violence in recent months.

The violence in pictures

On Thursday, three women and a man were killed and at least 12 others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop at Geha, a major junction outside Tel Aviv.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said it carried out the attack, which, it said, would be the first in a "series of retaliations".

It named the bomber as Said Hanani, 18, from the village of Beit Furik, near the West Bank city of Nablus, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The bombing was the first such attack since a bomb at a restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa killed 21 people in October, though Israeli officials say they have captured more than 20 potential suicide bombers trying to enter Israel since then.

The Zionist occupation will pay dearly for the murder Islamic Jihad

The US denounced what it called a "wanton act of terror".

After the latest suicide bombing, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the borders sealed between Israel and the Palestinian territories - already under a tight blockade.

Israel eased travel restrictions only a day earlier to allow pilgrims to visit Bethlehem for Christmas.

Reuters news agency quoted an Israeli army spokeswoman as saying the army would decide on Friday how to allow the worshippers to leave the town.

Cycle of violence

Mekled Hameid, a commander of the radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, and two of his bodyguards, were among those killed in the Gaza air strike.

The Israeli defence minister said Mr Hameid was planning a "mega terror attack" in Gaza when he was killed.

Islamic Jihad vowed to retaliate for Mr Hameid's death.

"We promise the [Israeli] occupiers severe retaliation for the assassination crime... the Zionist occupation will pay dearly for the murder," the group said in a statement.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei condemned the suicide bombing and the Israeli air strike.

"Regretting the continuation of the cycle of assassinations, liquidations and attacks against civilians on both sides, the prime minister calls for a stop to this bloody circle and the conclusion of a reciprocal ceasefire," a cabinet statement said.