Occupied Jerusalem: 19 May, 2003 (IAP News)

At least four Israeli settlers were killed and eighteen others injured Tuesday when a young Palestinian woman strapped with explosives blew herself up in the Jewish town of Affula in northern Palestine.

Medical sources said that 13 of the injured were in serious condition.

No Palestinian resistance group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but early reports suggested that the bombing might have been carried out by the Islamic Jihad organization, but there are currently conflicting reports on this.

The bombing in Affula is the fifth in less than 48 hours.

On Monday, a Palestinian guerilla killed two Jewish settlers in Hebron, and on Tuesday another Palestinian guerilla killed six Israeli settlers aboard a bus in occupied East Jerusalem.

The bombings came apparently in retaliation for the killing of more than 23 Palestinian civilians, including women and children, in Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation army has killed and maimed thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising against Israel’s decades-old occupation of the Palestinians’ homeland.