Israel: car explosion kills one

A suspected car bomb exploded at a road junction just outside the northern Israeli Arab town of Umm el Fahm today, killing one person and wounding several others, police said.

Police said they suspected the car had been rigged by Palestinians and blew up prematurely before it could be driven into an Israeli city.

They said the dead man appeared to be an Arab and speculated he may have intended to detonate the bomb in a populated area a day after 13 people were killed in a suicide attack on an Israeli bus and a shooting in East Jerusalem.

"It was apparently a work accident," an Israeli police spokesman said, using Israel's term for a Palestinian bomb that goes off prematurely.

Israeli media identified the dead man as a resident of Umm el Fahm and said that a second person, a passenger in the vehicle, was critically injured.

Israel Radio said the explosion blew off the roof of the car as it was leaving Umm el Fahm.

The possible involvement of an Israeli Arab in plans to carry out an attack in Israel coincided with the arrest earlier in the day of four Arab citizens of Israel suspected of supplying guerrillas in Lebanon with intelligence information.

Police said that they had been on high alert after receiving intelligence warnings that Palestinians would attempt an attack in northern Israel.

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