HIGLIGHTS: A Car Booby-trapped With Explosives Detonated Next to the Bus||Bombing Follows Warning By Lebanon's Hizbollah & Palestinian Resistance of a 'Mega Attack' Inside Israel||Bombing Prompts Angry Reaction in Israel|| STORY|| A huge bomb went off near a bus Wednesday morning in the area of Afula. At least 10 people are reported to have died and many more were injured in an explosion which ripped through the bus. (Read map caption)

Police said they suspect that a car booby-trapped with explosives detonated next to a bus as it traveled on the Wadi Ara Road, near Megiddo Junction, and that there were many casualties.

The bus, on route 830, had left from Tel Aviv early this morning and was destined for Tiberias. Many soldiers were believed to be on board, an official for the Egged bus company said.

Occupation army radio said at least 20 wounded were rushed to Hillel Yaffe Hospital in nearby Hadera.

Rescue forces were streaming to the site.

Amakim district police chief Deputy Commander Dov Lutzky said "a particularly large bomb went off. It's a difficult attack, there are many casualties."

The bombing followed a warning issued Tuesday by the head of military intelligence that Hizbullah and Palestinian terrorists were planning a "mega-attack" inside Israel.

The incident prompted an angry reaction in Israel.

"This is the bomb [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat prepared for George Tenet," said one political source, referring to the CIA director who is currently in the region.

Mr Tenet's mission is to reform the competing and overlapping branches of the Palestinian security services.

MAP CAPTION

Afula lies near Israel's border with the West Bank and has been targeted in previous attacks by Palestinian militants. On Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2001, Palestinian Resistance men opened fire on a crowd in the northern Israeli town of Afula, wounding at least nine people. Two of the attackers were killed by police at the scene. Another assailant had escaped