Haifa bombing

AT LEAST 10 people were killed and more than 20 injured when a Palestinian blew himself up in a bus in the northern Israeli city of Haifa yesterday at 2.40pm, Israeli public television reported.

The bomb went off in a residential area on the Carmel heights of Haifa city, the site of several past bombings.

This is the first bomb attack inside Israel since 5 January, when two Palestinians blew themselves up in central Tel Aviv, killing 23 other people.

Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner called the deadly blast a "very grave attack" and said Israel would take "vigorous action against the terrorist organisations".

The attack coincides with a two-week-old Israeli military offensive against Hamas strongholds in the Gaza Strip in which dozens of Palestinians have been killed.