JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking out for the first time since a suicide bombing killed five Israelis and wounded scores of others, demanded Sunday that the new Palestinian leadership either act forcefully to prevent further attacks or face a freeze in nascent peace efforts.
"There will be no diplomatic progress, I repeat, no diplomatic progress, until the Palestinians take vigorous action to wipe out terror groups and their infrastructure," Sharon told his Cabinet at its weekly meeting.
The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Friday night's attack, which targeted a crowd outside a popular Tel Aviv nightclub. The claim, however, came from the group's external leadership in Syria, after its senior commanders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip disavowed any knowledge of the bombing.
The blast killed four Israeli club-goers along with the bomber; a fifth victim died of her injuries early today.
The attack threatened to slow or halt what had been a steady stream of goodwill gestures by the two sides since Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took office Jan. 15.
Israel indicated Sunday that it intended to delay the planned release of about 400 Palestinian prisoners, which was to have taken place in coming weeks. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni informed Palestinian officials that Israel would not be convening a meeting of a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee that was to have put together a list of prisoners to be freed next.
Israeli officials had already said a pullback of Israeli troops from Palestinian population centers would be put off in the wake of the bombing, and that a hiatus in the "targeted killings" of militant leaders would no longer apply to Islamic Jihad.
While Israel said it held Syria responsible for the Tel Aviv blast because it harbored the leadership of Islamic Jihad and other militant groups, Sharon put the onus for preventing future attacks on Abbas' government.
"This is their test," the prime minister told members of his Likud Party in Tel Aviv.
Some Palestinian officials privately grumbled over Sharon's demand, pointing out that Israeli troops, not Palestinian security forces, are in control of the Tulkarm area in the northern West Bank, from which the bomber set out.
The Palestinian Authority prime minister, Ahmed Korei, responded coolly to Sharon's warning that Palestinian inaction could lead Israel to halt diplomatic moves and step up military raids, which had been sharply reduced after Abbas took office.
