OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 8 May — At least 16 people were killed yesterday when a Palestinian blew himself up at a billiard hall south of Tel Aviv. The blast came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met US President George W. Bush in Washington and efforts to end a 36-day-old armed standoff at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity stalled.
Israeli police confirmed that the attack at an entertainment center in the coastal city of Rishon Letzion was a bombing, the first since April 12. At least 51 people were injured, and at least one floor of the hall collapsed, trapping people in the rubble. The military wing of the Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
The United States stepped up pressure on Italy to give sanctuary to 13 fighters in the Church of the Nativity under a deal. Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to a US and European Union brokered deal in which 13 men on Israel’s wanted list would go to Egypt and then into exile in Italy. But Italy said it had been kept in the dark and could not consider accepting the men for now.
In a bid to end the last-minute snag in the church siege deal, US Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to urge cooperation to bring the standoff to an end and pave the way for an Israeli withdrawal from Bethlehem.
"As you know, we are hopeful that Italy might accept some of the people from the church and that’s what the secretary has been discussing with the Italian prime minister," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news briefing.
Under the agreement, a further 26 Palestinians sheltering inside the church were to be transferred to the Gaza Strip. But as night fell, hopes of a quick resolution faded. "We have reached an understanding to resolve the Church of the Nativity crisis," Israeli Army spokesman Olivier Rafowicz told reporters in Bethlehem. "The implementation is being delayed because no country is willing to accept them."
Palestinian groups urged their leader Yasser Arafat to reject the deal to end the siege, saying that letting Palestinians be sent into exile played into Israel’s hands. Fatah, the faction headed by Arafat himself, issued a statement urging its leader not to ratify the deal and calling it a "dangerous humanitarian crime". Abdel-Aziz Al-Rantisi, a senior leader of the Hamas, said the deal was a disaster and would weaken Palestinian demands for the return of tens of thousands of refugees to their homeland. "It reinforces the principle of transfer adopted by Sharon and the rest of the Zionist gang," Rantisi said. An official of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the deal amounted to Palestinian approval of an Israeli policy to expel and exile people. A spokesman for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine described it as "a mark of shame".
In Washington, President Bush said he was sending CIA Director George Tenet to the Middle East to help build a unified Palestinian security force. "I’ve told the prime minister that George Tenet will be going back to the region to help design the construction of a unified security force," Bush said after meeting Sharon.
