EMMANUEL, West Bank, 18 July — An explosion presumed to be the work of Palestinian gunmen rocked a street in Tel Aviv last night, killing at least six people, Israeli police said. Medics spoke of a number of further injured. An Israeli government spokesman said the blast was a “multiple terrorist attack” caused by at least one suicide bomber and another explosive device.
“This seems to be a multiple terrorist attack, in other words a suicide bomber, as well as an explosive charge,” Raanan Gissin told CNN television. Tel Aviv police later said two Palestinian bombers carried out the attack in which journalists at the scene estimated that about six people had died. Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sedbon told Israel’s Channel One television: “There were two suicide bombers.”
Earlier, Israel had postponed talks with the Palestinian Authority a day after a bloody attack that killed seven Israeli civilians near the settlement of Emmanuel, shattering a lull in hostilities. Israeli troops clashed with gunmen presumed to be the Palestinians who had planted a roadside bomb next to a bus on Tuesday and then sprayed automatic weapons fire at surviving passengers.
An Israeli officer and one of the gunmen were killed in the exchange. Backed by helicopters, troops fanned across West Bank hills in search of the other gunmen behind the attack. In addition, an Israeli warplane fired a missile into a building in the central Gaza Strip which Palestinians said was a metal foundry. The building was flattened in the airstrike in which two Palestinians were killed.
Israel canceled a meeting with moderate Palestinian Authority leaders planned for yesterday. Israeli forces also killed a man from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, in an attack in a northern West Bank village, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
Meanwhile, the White House yesterday hailed as “positive” and “interesting” developments made in efforts to restart the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians after joining the Middle East “quartet” with Russia, the United Nations and the European Union at a meeting in New York. “The quartet met in New York and there are just positive, quiet, interesting developments that are taking place in terms of peace in the Middle East,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington.
Fleischer said that President George W. Bush, who is to meet foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan today, was “encouraged” by “some of the quiet, hopeful signs of progress” and was looking forward to discussing the developments with the ministers, who joined the quartet for a working dinner Tuesday night in New York.
Arafat said, meanwhile, he would be a candidate in January elections, defying Bush’s calls for his ouster. In an interview on Egyptian television, Arafat replied when asked if he would run in January, “Of course, if I am tasked by the Palestinian command (because) I am proud of our democracy.” He added, “I will refer to the executive committee and the central committee (of the Palestine Liberation Organization), then afterward I will stand in the elections.”
A joint statement issued by the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union after the meeting in New York, urged nations to lend their support to democratic reform of Palestinian institutions and called on Israel to eventually withdraw from occupied territories.
“Implementation of an action plan, with appropriate benchmarks for progress on reform measures, should lead to the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state characterized by the rule of law, separation of powers, and a vibrant free market economy that can best serve the interests of its people,” it added.
The Palestinian Authority welcomed as “encouraging and balanced” the stance of the four-way meeting. “The statement of the quartet is encouraging and balanced,” Nabil Abu Rudeina, an adviser to Arafat, told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Russian and EU ministers said they still recognize Arafat. (The Independent)
