OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 19 June — A Palestinian blew himself up on a bus here yesterday, killing 19 other people and threatening to unleash a fresh cycle of bloodshed as Washington readied a new strategy for Middle East peace. Israeli police said some 50 people were wounded in the attack on a rush-hour bus in southern Jerusalem carrying commuters and schoolchildren. At least five were reported in serious condition, including four youths.
Israel vowed to retaliate for the deadliest attack since the March 27 attack which cost 29 lives at a holiday feast in the northern coastal city of Netanya. The bomber in a red jumper managed to sneak through a net of Israeli police on high alert and board the bus traveling from the Jewish settlement of Gilo on Jerusalem’s southern outskirts toward the city center.
The blast went off just after he clambered aboard at a bus stop across from the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa. It blew the vehicle across the road and left it a charred wreck with a huge hole in its roof.
The attack was claimed by the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas by a caller who named the bomber as Muhammad Al-Ghul, 23, originally from the northern West Bank refugee camp of Al-Faraa. Israeli police later arrested one of his six brothers, Iyad Al-Ghul, 28, a nurse at Saint John’s eye hospital in East Jerusalem, relatives and colleagues said. Jerusalem police chief Micky Levy said his men were hunting for other Palestinians believed to be preparing suicide attacks in the city.
The hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon inspected the damage from the second bombing in Israel in a week. With US President George W. Bush preparing to announce his blueprint for ending the nearly 21-month-old conflict, Sharon derisively rejected the idea being floated to declare at least a provisional Palestinian state.
“A Palestinian state? It would be interesting to know what kind of Palestinian state they are talking about,” bellowed the hard-line leader, surrounded by dozens of bodyguards and police. Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer met with army and security officials and decided to retaliate for the bombing, public radio reported.
Condemning the suicide bombing, Bush said the Middle East vision he is expected to lay out this week “rejects terror and killing.” “We believe in peace in the Middle East, that we’re going to be steadfast toward a vision that rejects terror and killing, and honors peace and hope,” Bush said.
The White House said Bush would not lay out his new strategy later in the day and denied that the timing was linked to the latest bombing.
Yesterday’s blast also put Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority further on the defensive, with the Israelis blaming them for their inability to curb the attacks on Israeli citizens.
The Palestinian leadership condemned the attack and warned it would damage prospects for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday the entire Arab world is prepared to offer Israel peace in exchange for its total withdrawal from occupied Arab territories.
He was speaking at a joint press conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher after briefing President Hosni Mubarak on his talks last week with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Prince Saud said he also delivered to the Egyptian leader a message from Crown Prince Abdullah, the regent, on developments in the region.
