Palestinians called on Saturday for swift international intervention to stop a series of Israeli air strikes on Gaza that have knocked out electricity to several thousand homes and blasted deep craters in roads.
The air strikes were part of a broad Israeli offensive launched by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against Islamic Jihad militants who claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis in an open-air market on Wednesday.
In most of Israel's dozen raids, warplanes targeted rocket launch sites in open areas of northern Gaza, from where militants have fired rockets, mortars and anti-tank rockets at Israel since Friday.
In a statement, Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Youssef urged "immediate international intervention" to stop the raids.
In between the raids, the Israeli army dropped leaflets in Gaza threatening more strikes until there was "a total cessation of terror attacks". They also warned civilians to keep a distance from rocket launch sites and urged them to turn in militants.
The car bomb attack, which caused no injuries, took place as an Israeli military patrol went by, the spokeswoman said.