Palestinian extremists yesterday stepped up their campaign to thwart the fragile new Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, sending two suicide bombers driving a car packed with explosives into Jerusalem's main fruit and vegetable market.
But some of the explosives apparently began detonating prematurely, and shoppers fled from the red Fiat because smoke was coming out of its bonnet and its windows. Seconds later, when the main charges detonated, and the car burst into flames, only the two bombers were killed, although 21 Israelis were injured.
The bombing took place at about 9.45 a.m. at the Mahane Yehuda market, crowded with Israelis shopping for the weekend.
For more than an hour afterwards, the two bodies were left lying on the road, oozing blood from beneath improvised cardboard and plastic covers, as investigators collected evidence. The burned, twisted wreckage of the Fiat lay near the entrance to one of the market's main pedestrian walkways.
A five-minute drive away, at the Prime Minister's office, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet colleagues had been debating the new Wye summit peace deal and, ferocious argument notwithstanding, had been likely to approve it.
But when news of the blast reached the ministers, their session was cut short. And when they reconvened later in the day, it was to announce that they would not approve the deal - not, that is, a cabinet statement made clear, until Israel "verifies that the Palestinian Authority is taking vigorous steps for a relentless fight against terrorist organisations and their infrastructure."
Israel is now also demanding a more formal renunciation of the PLO Covenant than was provided for under the terms of the Wye deal. The initial assumption was that the bombing was carried out by the radical Islamic movement Hamas. But there were also reports last night that a more "amateurish" group was to blame, hence the atypical inefficiency of the bombing; Hamas strikes, which included a bombing at the same market a year ago in which 16 Israelis died, have tended to be all-too efficient.
The Palestinian Authority president, Mr Yasser Arafat, appeared on Israeli television last night to condemn the bombing as "a despicable act of terrorism", and said he had told Mr Netanyahu by telephone that he was making "a 100 per cent effort" to prevent such attacks. Several hundred Hamas activists have been arrested in the past few days.
And Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, has been placed under house arrest.
Mr Arafat was last night also in contact with the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, urging her to pressure Mr Netanyahu and his cabinet into approving the Wye deal, under which Israel is supposed to hand over another 13 per cent of the occupied West Bank to Mr Arafat's control.
President Clinton expressed his hope that the deal would not be derailed by the "enemies of peace".
For Mr Netanyahu's government, enormously reluctant to relinquish West Bank land, however, there is little incentive to proceed so long as the bombers are able to strike.
Yesterday's attack marked the third time in less than a month that extremists have set out deliberately to scupper the deal - previous attacks included an attempted suicide bombing of a Jewish school bus in the Gaza Strip, and a hand-grenade assault in Beersheba's main bus station. And unless the attacks are halted, Mr Netanyahu knows that public support for the deal will ebb, and that his personal standing will also be hugely undermined.
For Mr Arafat, who was meeting with his cabinet ministers last night, the bombings amount to a direct challenge to his rule and his policies. And if he can't put a stop to them, he knows that this Israeli government will give him no more land.
AFP adds from Washington: The US State Department acknowledged yesterday there will be a "short pause" in the peace process following the car-bomb attack. The Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, told Mr Netanyahu yesterday she understood the Israeli decision to suspend debate on approving the agreement.