Kindgo
Advanced Member
Member # 2
|
posted
web page
By Shlomi Afriat
MOUNT MERON, Israel (Reuters) - A Palestinian suicide bomber turned a packed bus in northern Israel into a fireball on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens.
Hours later, a Palestinian opened fire at an Israeli telephone truck in a Palestinian market in East Jerusalem in an attack in which three people, including the gunman, were killed, police said.
The powerful blast on a Galilee country road tore gaping holes in the sides and roof of the inter-city bus crowded with civilians and soldiers returning to base during the morning rush hour at the start of the Israeli work week.
Witnesses and rescue workers said the explosion ignited an inferno that blazed for 10 minutes before the fire brigade arrived.
"There were mangled bodies everywhere," Nissim Hozeh, a fireman, told reporters. Pieces of clothing, including army uniforms and bags littered the ground for meters.
In a statement issued in Gaza, the militant group Hamas said it had carried out the bombing in further revenge for an Israeli air raid on July 22 that killed its military commander Salah Shehada, his deputy and 13 other Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the bus attack, but said in a statement that Israel's policy of "mass detentions, repressive measures and home demolitions" was responsible for the cycle of violence.
The bombing flew in the face of stepped up Israeli military action in the West Bank, including the demolition of nine homes of relatives of Palestinian suicide bombers and other gunmen, action which Israel said was aimed at deterring future attacks.
"I am distressed to hear about the latest suicide bombers in Israel," President Bush told reporters in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he is spending a holiday weekend.
"There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started. We must not let them," Bush added, wagging his finger. "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers."
Outside the Damascus Gate to East Jerusalem's Old City, police exchanged fire with a 19-year-old Palestinian who shot dead an Israeli in a telephone truck. The gunman and a Palestinian passerby were killed, police said.
"We saw somebody standing by a truck. He leaned into the window. He had a pistol," said Carl Williams, 33, on holiday from Boston. "When I saw that, I got out of here and hit the ground and immediately we heard gunshots."
Rescue workers said at least 14 people were wounded.
The violence could cloud sketchy plans for talks Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer planned this week with Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzek al-Yahya, in charge of Palestinian security services.
EXPLOSION NEAR BUS STOP
The bus, traveling between the Mediterranean port of Haifa and the northern city of Safed, exploded at a stop near Mount Meron, the revered burial site of a second-century Jewish sage.
"We can say for certain that it was a suicide bomber," Galilee police chief Yehuda Solomon told Channel One television.
Police said at least nine people were killed by the bomber, who also died. Officials in local hospitals said they treated more than 25 wounded.
The Hamas statement said a "martyr" blew up the bus, but added that the group would not release the bomber's name to ensure Israel could not punish his relatives.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has called for international intervention to stop the house demolitions, describing the tactic as a crime against humanity.
Sunday's bus attack came four days after a Hamas bomb at an international students' center in Jerusalem's Hebrew University killed seven people, including five Americans.
"This is the second revenge for Israeli crimes, when they killed Salah Shehada," Hamas said in its statement.
'ARMED PALESTINIAN' SHOT DEAD
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers killed an armed Palestinian as he tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement, the army said.
A military appeals committee was to reconvene Sunday to decide whether to proceed with the deportation of two Palestinians, brothers of wanted militants, from the West Bank to the fenced-in Gaza Strip.
Israel's attorney general has given the army the green light to exile to Gaza relatives of militants, on condition it can prove the family members had a link to attacks.
In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers have been conducting a large-scale assault since Friday in the Casbah, or Old City, of Nablus, going house-to-house in search of explosives and suspected suicide bombers and their handlers.
The Nablus operation is the largest movement of troops since Israel reoccupied seven West Bank cities in response to suicide bombings in Jerusalem in mid-June.
At least 1,479 Palestinians and 583 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after peace talks froze.
--------------------
God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged | 
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
