At Least Three Americans Killed In Gaza Bombing

"We have three dead. I am not sure about the fourth," a U.S. diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Magen David Adom service, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, also said that three people were dead and a fourth was injured.

Palestinian security sources had earlier said that four people had been killed in the attack.

The blast went off shortly after 10:00am (0800 GMT) as the convoy was traveling in the Beit Hanun area near a gas station down the road of Salaheddin linking the north and the south of Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

"We saw charred bodies and body parties scattered at the scene beside a jeep believed to be a GMC on its way from the north to the south of the Strip," they added.

When foreign officials travel in and around the region they do so in heavily armored vehicles, with many security officials in tow, said BBC’s Simon Wilson in occupied Jerusalem.

"We are always on a very high security alert posture here, we are always sort of very sensitive and aware of security issues," a U.S. embassy source told AFP.

A team of U.S. investigators arrived at the scene of the bomb attack, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

Six investigators arrived at the site near the Erez border crossing into Israel around 1:15 pm (1115 GMT) and started investigating a crater left by the force of the explosion, they said.

There was no official word on the investigation from U.S. embassy officials in Tel Aviv.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, the first of its kind in the Palestinian territories against a U.S. target.

Palestinian Condolences

The Palestinian Authority was quick to condemn the attack and President Yasser Arafat issued a strongly-worded statement denouncing the bombing and proposed a three-way investigation committee of the PA, the U.S. and the Quartet.

"I strongly condemn this crime which targeted Americans observers who came on a mission of peace and security," he said in a statement issued by his office in Ramallah.

The Palestinian leader said the attack could be meant to scuttle plans for deploying foreign and American monitors to the occupied territories as stipulated in the U.S.-backed roadmap.

Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat also condemned the deadly attack and offered their condolences to the victims.

"We express our profound regret and our anger after this incident which we condemn and denounce," Qorei told reporters in this West Bank town.

Erekat repudiated earlier reports by Israeli media that U.S. special Middle East envoy John Wolf and officials from the Central Intelligence Agency were traveling in the convoy.

He told Al-Jazeera that Wolf was not in the region but in Washington "to sign contracts for more monitors."

"They are not CIA elements but rather American monitors to supervise the implementation of the roadmap. They were deployed at the request of the Palestinian Authority," Erekat stressed.

"The entire Palestinian people are in favor of the deployment of monitors in the occupied territories to verify the Israeli aggressions".

Israeli forces backed by combat helicopters staged an incursion into the northern Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the attack, according to Palestinian security sources.