Jerusalem, Apr 09: A radical right-wing Jewish group today claimed responsibility for an explosion which injured 29 Palestinian children in a school in the northern West Bank, Israeli Army Radio said. The group, calling itself "revenge of the babies," said in a message sent to the beeper of one of the radio's journalists that the blast was "to avenge the Jewish children killed by the Palestinians." The blast occurred in a school in the village of al-Jarba, 10 kms south of Jenin. Four of the injured were in serious condition, Palestinian medics said.


Palestinian security officials were interviewing children to establish exactly how the explosive device went off.

Initial reports indicated one of the children had found the device, thought to be an Israeli-made grenade, in the school and that it exploded while he was playing with it in a classroom.


Israeli military sources did not rule out that the blast could have been the work of Jewish extreme nationalists.

A group also calling itself "revenge of the children" claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a school in an Arab district of east Jerusalem in March last year.

Three Palestinian school pupils and a teacher were wounded in that blast in a school yard in east Jerusalem's Tzur Baher district, an Arab area of the city which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967.
A carnage was narrowly averted as two more bombs were found on the scene and defused, while a fourth explosive device was also discovered in time in a nearby community clinic. Bureau Report