OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 12 June 2003 — A bombing in Jerusalem and an Israeli helicopter raid in Gaza killed at least 24 people yesterday, in an explosion of tit-for-tat violence a day after an assassination attempt on a senior Hamas leader.
Seventeen people were killed and scores wounded when the bomber, dressed as an orthodox Jew, exploded his bomb, which ripped through a bus on a busy street in central-west Jerusalem, police reported.
About an hour later, seven Palestinians were killed when Israeli helicopters fired missiles on a car in Gaza City, Palestinian medical and security sources said.
The bloodshed, sparked by the helicopter attack on Tuesday on Abdul Aziz Al-Rantissi, political leader of the radical group Hamas, drove a new nail into hopes for implementation of a US-sponsored “road map” for peace.
US President George W. Bush, who last week brought both sides together for a summit to promote the peace process, condemned the bombing in Jerusalem “in the strongest possible terms,” the White House said. Bush earlier had delivered a milder but rare rebuke, to Israel, saying he was “troubled” by the helicopter gunship attacks on Rantissi that left two people dead and two dozen wounded and another raid in Gaza which killed another three people.
The Jerusalem attack was carried out by a bomber from Hamas who apparently stepped on a bus when it was stopped at a major intersection near the entrance of a shopping mall, Israeli radio said. “The bus was torn to shreds. There was a massive blast, it’s a horrific scene,” one witness was quoted as saying by Israeli public radio.
The street, west Jerusalem’s main thoroughfare, has been hit by several Palestinian attacks since the start of the intifada, or uprising, against Israel in September 2000.
A Hamas official, speaking to AFP, said the attack showed Palestinian groups could strike “when and where” they wanted.
Rantissi, who suffered only light wounds in the helicopter missile attack on his life, had vowed from his hospital bed “not to leave one Jew in Palestine” as the group dropped all talk of a cease-fire.
The Israeli helicopter strike, carried out shortly after the Jerusalem bombing, occurred in the Shajayah neighborhood in Gaza City, the Palestinian sources said.
They said Massud Tito, a senior member of the Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades, and another member, Soheil Abu Nahel, were among those killed in the missile strike. The strike also left two women dead and some 20 people wounded.
“Two missiles hit the car. I stopped my car to help them but the Israeli helicopters fired four more missiles at us,” Mohammad, a Palestinian in his forties who was wounded in the attack, told AFP at a nearby hospital.
“When they took the bodies out of the car, I cannot tell you how they looked. It was terrifying,” added Abu Raed Humaid, who was one of the first to rush to the scene.
Minutes after the missile attack, hundreds of Hamas supporters and other Palestinians mobbed the fuming wreckage and started chanting anti-Israeli slogans, vowing to give their lives for the Palestinian cause.
The latest attacks came a week to the day after Israel and the Palestinians affirmed their commitment to Bush’s peace road map to end the 32 months of bloodshed at the summit with Bush in Aqaba, Jordan.
Military radio said Israeli security services had intelligence on plans for 53 anti-Israeli attacks, half of them from Hamas.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that Israel would continue to pursue Palestinian hard-liners to the fullest extent while making “every effort” for peacemaking with the Palestinians.
“The State of Israel will pursue to the fullest extent the Palestinian groups and their leaders,” Sharon said in a speech after the bombing by Hamas.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas condemned the “terrorist attack” carried out by the Hamas bomber and demanded Palestinian factions declare a cease-fire.
His statement was issued shortly after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat went live on Palestinian television, condemning the Jerusalem bombing which killed 16 people and the Hamas bomber in the same words and also calling for an immediate cease-fire with Israel. “I strongly condemn the terrorist operation in Jerusalem, as strongly as I condemn the assassination attempt against (Abdul Aziz) Al-Rantissi,” Arafat said.
“I call on Palestinian factions to take their responsibilities and avoid taking the path on which Israel is trying to push them in order to destroy the road map,” he added.
