OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 10 September 2003 — In back-to-back bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Palestinians yesterday killed at least nine people and injured scores. The attacks were in apparent retaliation of an Israeli murder attempt on Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on Saturday.
Israel’s Channel Two television said the body of the first bomber was found at a bus station for soldiers at the entrance to the sprawling Tzrifin army base near Tel Aviv. Six people were killed in that attack and at least 15 injured.
The blast left a charred, severed leg in the middle of the road, bloody flesh dangling from the roof of the bus stop and torn clothing scattered about the ground.
Twenty-year-old army medic Nurit Betzer, who helped some of the victims, said that she had “had a hunch it was going to happen and happen here when I drove into the base this morning.”
“The only think I have to say is that I cannot take it any more,” she said before briefly breaking down. “It’s always the same, always the smell of blood, the injured, the screaming, the smell.”
Hours later, a Palestinian blew himself up in a West Jerusalem café, killing at least three people and injuring 40. The explosion occurred at the Hillel cafe.
“It was apparently a bomber who entered the cafe and blew up. There are several people dead and dozens wounded,” a Jerusalem police spokesman said.
An official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office said that Israel would “take the necessary steps to defend its people in the face of the Palestinian Authority’s unwillingness” to dismantle militant groups.
An official accompanying Sharon on his India trip said in New Delhi that the prime minister had no plans to cut short his visit.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either of the blasts.
The bombings were the first since Aug. 19 when a Hamas activist killed 22 people in Jerusalem. Israel responded with a relentless campaign to crush Hamas, killing 12 members in airstrikes since then and drawing vows of vengeance.
Last Saturday it failed to wipe out the Hamas leadership, including its founder Sheikh Yassin.
Israeli troops killed two senior Hamas activists in a shootout in the West Bank city of Hebron hours before the bus stop bombing. Ahmed Qorei, nominated to be the next Palestinian prime minister, condemned the bombings and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to end the cycle of violence.
“We condemn all acts of killings that target innocents, whether they be Palestinians... or the Israelis who were victims of today’s explosions,” Qorei said. “Such incidents confirm the necessity for both the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to... examine the most effective ways to put an end to the killing.”
In Gaza, Hamas political leader Abdelaziz Rantisi said the attacks were a response to Israeli “crimes”, but stopped short of taking responsibility.
But senior Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said Israel held the Hamas leadership responsible for the bloodshed, as well as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for failing to allow his former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to crack down on militants.
“We will continue our battle against Hamas and the leaders of Hamas as they are the people responsible for this slaughter today,” Pazner said.
