Petah Tikvah (Tel Aviv) : Four people were killed today (Dec 25, 2003) in the first suicide attack in Israel in nearly three months, shortly after a top Palestinian militant was assassinated in the Gaza Strip, as the Holy Land witnessed an explosion of violence on Christmas Day.

The bomber and his three victims died in an attack on a bus stop in Petakh Tikvah, on the northeastern outskirts of Tel Aviv, which also left 16 others injured, police said.

It was the first suicide attack in Israel since a female Islamic Jihad bomber killed herself and 22 others at a restaurant in the northern city of Haifa on October 4. It marks an end to the longest lull in suicide attacks since the start of the Palestinian Intifada in September 2000.

Unconfirmed sources said attack was carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Israel responded by imposing a total closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as calling for a resumption of top-level talks, which have now been frozen for more than four months.

The latest incidents came in rapid succession during the early evening and followed an earlier incident in which a Palestinian man with an explosive charge strapped to his body was gunned down by soldiers as he approached a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip.