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Bus blast kills 9 { August 4 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41921-2002Aug4.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41921-2002Aug4.html
Bomb Blast on Bus in Northern Israel Kills 9
By Jack Katzenell
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, August 4, 2002; 8:07 AM
JERUSALEM –– A bomb ripped apart a bus in northern Israel during rush hour Sunday, killing at least nine people, wounding dozens and scattering charred remains across the highway.
The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility and said it was a suicide bombing. Israeli police said the attack was likely a suicide attack but that the investigation was continuing.
Three hours after the bombing at the Meron Junction near the town of Tsfat, a Palestinian attacker opened fire just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, sparking a gun battle with police that left three people dead, including an Israeli security guard, an Arab bystander and the gunman.
The blast came four days after a bomb exploded in a cafeteria at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, killing seven people, including five Americans. Hamas claimed responsibility for that bombing as well.
In a statement received in Lebanon by Hezbollah's television station, Al-Manar, Hamas called Sunday's bombing the second retaliatory attack for the killing of the group's military leader, Salah Shehadeh, in an Israeli bombing in Gaza City last month. That attack also killed 14 Palestinian civilians.
President Bush said he was "distressed" to learn of the Sunday bombing.
"There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started. We must not let them," Bush said as he began a daybreak golf game with his father in Kennebunkport, Maine. "For the sake of humanity, for the sake of the Palestinians who suffer, for the sake of the Israelis who are under attack, we must stop the terror."
An Israeli official blamed the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, for the attack, saying it showed it "feeds on terror."
"This Palestinian terror must be uprooted and Israel will not relent in its pursuit of, and war against, Palestinian terror," said David Baker, an official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The Palestinian leadership condemned the bombing, but also accused Sharon of "war crimes" for the Israeli army's mass detentions, home demolitions and curfews imposed on Palestinians.
Recent Palestinian attacks prompted Israel to raid the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday in a hunt for militants. Israeli troops remained in the city on Sunday.
The bus in northern Israel was packed with people on their way to work and a number of soldiers returning to their base at the beginning of the work week.
Nine people were killed in the explosion, including a number of soldiers, said police spokesman Yaron Zamir.
Thirty-seven people were injured, two critically, said David Peretz, head of the emergency ambulance service Magen David Adom in northern Israel.
"I picked up four dead myself," Haim Ben-Shimon, a civilian who was nearby at the time of the blast, told Army Radio. "The bus is simply crushed. It looks as if the explosion happened in the center of the bus."
The windows of the bus were blown out and part of the roof and side were splayed open by the force of the blast, with debris scattered around the area. Soldiers in flak vests and medical crews swarmed the scene as ambulances took away the injured.
Television footage from nearby hospitals showed several of the injured wearing green army uniforms.
"A soldier came out with his face and uniform covered with blood, and two Arabs from the nearby restaurant gave him first aid," said Pinhas Cohen, a witness.
Ron Ratner, a spokesman for the Egged bus company, said the passengers on bus No. 361 from the coastal town of Haifa to Tsfat were regulars on Sunday morning, many of them soldiers headed to bases in the north. He said security in Haifa is tight, but that a bomber could have boarded at one of the bus stops on the way.
In the Jerusalem shooting, the Palestinian gunmen used a pistol to fire at close range on a truck belonging to Israel's main phone company, Bezeq. A security guard was killed and the driver was injured, police said.
Seconds later, Israeli police began firing, witnesses said. The gunman was killed by police, and an Arab bystander was hit and killed by cross fire, Israeli officials said. Six people were hurt in the shooting outside the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City.
In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, soldiers shot and killed an armed Palestinian dressed in a wet suit who had apparently swum to an area near the Jewish settlements of Dugit and Alei Sinai, the army said.
Also Sunday, the army pressed its new policy of demolishing homes of suicide bombers and other militants, blowing up nine houses in West Bank — four in the Jenin area, three in Nablus and two in Hebron. The army said the houses all belonged to militants who carried out or orchestrated attacks against Israelis.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers kept up its siege on Nablus, searching shops and houses for militants Israel says are responsible for recent attacks.
The army entered the town's Old City early Friday, arresting dozens of Palestinians and destroying at least two houses it said were bomb factories.
Israeli officials said Nabus had replaced Jenin as the main hub of terrorist cells responsible for recent attacks on Israelis.
Israeli officials had said high-level talks between Sharon and Palestinian Cabinet ministers could be expected later this week, but it was unclear whether the meetings would go ahead as planned after Sunday's attacks.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres also planned to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Monday, Peres adviser Yoram Dori said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the remains of American student Marla Bennett, 24, of San Diego, who was killed in the university bombing, were returned to the United States early Sunday. The remains of two other Americans were returned Friday, while an Israeli-American was buried in Jerusalem. The remains of an American-French citizen were to be sent to France on Monday.
© 2002 The Associated Press
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