Car bomb explodes in W Bank city

A car bomb has exploded in the West Bank town of Nablus, near a Jewish shrine where scores of Israelis were praying under armed guard.

The bombing near Joseph's Tomb caused no Israeli casualties but wounded a Palestinian mother and her children.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the incident.

It was not clear if the explosives went off prematurely or if the shrine was the target, but it underlines how fragile the current ceasefire is.

An Israeli military spokesman said militants detonated the car bomb during the night as an Israeli military vehicle drove past it.

The Joseph's Tomb site has been a regular flashpoint in the past four years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Israeli troops withdrew from an occupied enclave containing the shrine in 2000, after which it was largely destroyed by Palestinian militants.

Since then, Jewish worshippers have been prevented from visiting by the Israeli army, except for special visits under army protection.

Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and since then it has moved about 400,000 settlers onto the occupied land.

Arrests

In other developments, Israeli troops arrested four members of Islamic Jihad group overnight, Israeli security sources said.

The Palestinians need time. They just formed their government barely two weeks ago Israeli deputy PM Shimon Peres

Palestinian sources said that seven suspects had been rounded up in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, sparking clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen.

Senior Palestinian sources said their security forces had arrested six Jihad activists following the suicide bombing that killed five Israelis in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv last Friday.

With Palestinian militants apparently testing the ceasefire declared jointly by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in February, the Israeli deputy prime minister has called for patience on Israel's part.

"There is relative calm. Certainly there are people trying to destroy peace efforts, that doesn't surprise me," Shimon Peres said in a radio interview.

"The Palestinians need time. They just formed their government barely two weeks ago," Mr Peres said.

He met Palestinian cabinet minister Mohammed Dahlan for talks on economic issues in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been holding talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The two leaders - who will be joined by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal - were expected to discuss the results of an international conference on Palestinian reform held in London this week, as well as security issues linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.