OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 20 June — A Palestinian bomber killed seven people and wounded over 40 at a Jerusalem bus stop yesterday, a day after a similar attack in the city left 19 people dead. The latest attack prompted US President George W. Bush to delay a speech laying out the path to a Palestinian state.

The attack, claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, came after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to reoccupy parts of Palestinian-ruled areas after each such attack. To make good his threat, Israeli troops occupied Jenin and carried out widespread incursions into Palestinian areas.

In the West Bank town of Qalqilya, a Palestinian was killed and five Israeli soldiers were wounded. Palestinian security sources said the clash broke out near the building of the Palestinian security service, which was surrounded by Israeli troops. And at nightfall, Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at heavily populated areas in Gaza City and Khan Yunis. Casualties if any could not be immediately known.

In yesterday attack in Jerusalem’s French Hill area, the bomber ran to the bus stop as police chased him. He detonated a powerful bomb when he reached the bus stop. Medics and police said seven people had died and over 40 had been wounded in the attack, which took place in an area that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognized internationally.

In Washington, the White House condemned the bombing and said its immediate aftermath was not the right time for Bush to lay out his ideas on Middle East peace. "The president knows what he wants to say. The president will share it when...it can do the most good," spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "I think the time will be soon...It’s hard to get people to focus on peace today when they’re still suffering from the consequences of terrorism as we speak."

Fleischer also said Bush did not object to Israel’s decision to reoccupy Palestinian areas in response to any new attacks. "The president believes that Israel is in the middle of recovering from a very serious attack and that Israel has a right to defend itself," Fleischer said.

Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Al-Khatib said the attack is "another example that violence begets violence." He said that Bush’s decision to delay the speech could only "widen the cycle of violence..." "The right and only response to Israeli and Palestinian violence is to launch a peace process that ends occupation and provides peace and security," Khatib said.

Fifty-five leading Palestinian figures urged a halt to attacks against civilians in Israel, in an appeal published in Al-Quds newspaper. "These operations do not help our national plan for freedom and independence. On the contrary, they strengthen the enemies of peace and give pretexts to the aggressive government of Ariel Sharon to pursue his furious war against our people," they wrote in an appeal.

Among the signatories were Sari Nusseibeh, the PLO political commissioner for Jerusalem, and Hanan Ashrawi, a deputy in the legislative council.