Among the wounded was a 6-year-old girl who was badly burned, Israel TV reported. Two women were killed instantly, and a third died several hours later of her wounds, according to Israel Radio.

Israel blamed the militant Islamic Jihad, which has continued its attacks against Israelis despite a truce declared in February, and police linked the explosion to a failed car bomb attack a few minutes earlier in the West Bank...

Though violence has dropped considerably since the February truce, incidents have continued, killing 32 people on the Palestinian side and 13 on the Israeli side. Israelis have been killed in West Bank ambushes, and Palestinians died in shootouts with Israeli soldiers. Also, militants regularly pelt Jewish settlements in Gaza with rockets and mortars...

Netanya has been a target for suicide bombers in the past. On May 18, 2001, a bomber blew himself up at the mall, killing five Israelis. In the deadliest Palestinian bombing in the past four years of fighting, an Islamic militant blew himself up in a Netanya hotel during a Passover seder in 2002, killing 29 people...

Israeli security officials say a partially completed barrier along the West Bank has stopped many attempted bombings. Netanya is at Israel's narrowest point, where the West Bank is just nine miles from the Mediterranean Sea.

AP being what it is, one can expect "militant" when terrorist is appropriate, and similar AP sillinesses. But one should marvel at the fact the the report does provide context, background and references to past atrocities.