Israel Defies Demands to End West Bank Offensive
Palestinian Suicide Bomber Kills Eight Israelis
By Albert Robinson
Reuters
HAIFA, Israel (April 10) - A Palestinian suicide bomber killed eight passengers on an Israeli bus and Israel pledged to press on with its West Bank offensive, dealing a double blow Wednesday to a U.S. peace mission.
The United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations piled pressure on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities. But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responded with a rebuke of his critics, including President Bush.
Palestinian officials said the blast on a bus from the northern city of Haifa to Jerusalem shattered Israel's argument that its 12-day-old military operation in the West Bank was a sweep for militants which would bring security to Israelis shaken by a spate of suicide attacks last month.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the suicide attack ''reinforces for the president the need for all parties to step back, for Israel to withdraw, and for the Palestinians and the Arabs to stop the violence, stop the killing.''
His comments echoed a joint statement issued after Secretary of State Colin Powell met U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar representing the EU, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in Madrid.
They also urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to do everything possible to halt attacks against Israeli civilians.
Powell, dispatched on a Middle East mission to end more than 18 months of bloodshed shortly after Bush demanded an end to the Israeli offensive, was expected in Israel late Thursday.
Powell said at a Madrid news conference that it was important for him to hold talks with Arafat, though he had not yet arranged a meeting..
Sharon believes such a meeting would be a ''tragic mistake,'' an Israeli political source said.
On the eve of Powell's arrival, Sharon appeared to set himself on a collision course with Washington, Israel's chief ally and provider of $3 billion in annual aid.
''I hope our great friend the United States understands that this is a war of survival for us...it's our right to defend our citizens and there should be no pressure put on us not to do that,'' Sharon told troops and reporters near the West Bank town of Jenin.
''Our wonderful soldiers have to be able to continue this struggle,'' he said. ''We are doing exactly what President Bush said should be done against terror. Once we do that, once we accomplish that, we have no intention, we will not stay in any zones.''
BLAST SCATTERS BODY PARTS
After the bus blast, which scattered body parts across 250 yards of highway near Haifa, Sharon's security cabinet decided the military offensive that has killed at least 200 Palestinians would continue.
In the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian civilians fled their homes, seeking shelter in Jenin city, after fierce fighting between gunmen and Israeli soldiers subsided and Israeli bulldozers and armor moved in, witnesses said.
The militant Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bus attack, saying: ''The operation, launched from the heart of our besieged cities, is a slap in the faces of the criminals of the Zionist war.''
Besides the bomber and the eight others killed on the bus, at least 12 people were wounded.
''I saw people blown out of the windows by the force of the explosion...I saw hands and legs and other body parts on the road,'' witness Eli Levy said.
In Bethlehem, an Armenian priest was shot and seriously wounded in the besieged Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.
It was not clear who shot the priest, who has been trapped along with some 50 clergymen and dozens of other people -- some of them armed -- since Israeli forces surrounded the shrine more than a week ago. Palestinian and Israeli snipers have been spotted on nearby rooftops.
In Jenin refugee camp, scene of some of the worst battles since the West Bank sweep began, a senior Palestinian militant said gunmen surrounded by soldiers had stopped fighting.
The army, which suffered 13 dead in an ambush Tuesday, said about 200 Palestinians surrendered there Wednesday. The Palestinian death toll from close combat in the narrow alleyways of the camp was expected to be high.
Bush has demanded Israel pull out ''without delay'' from all Palestinian areas seized in the offensive, launched after a suicide bomber killed 27 people in an Israeli hotel last month.
A nine-day lull in Palestinian strikes inside Israel had coincided with the Israeli operation in West Bank cities, villages and refugee camps. Government officials had said the respite showed the offensive was working.
Israeli forces withdrew from two West Bank cities on Tuesday. The Palestinians dismissed the pullbacks from Qalqilya and Tulkarm, still surrounded by Israeli forces, as a ''lie.''
ISRAEL BLAMES PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
The explosion on the bus during the morning rush hour buckled the vehicle and ripped open its roof like a tin can.
Israel placed overall responsibility on Arafat, besieged by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, general secretary of the Palestinian Authority, said: ''The Haifa attack proves the failure of Sharon's sweeping invasion in Palestinian territories.
At least 1,249 Palestinians and 445 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000 after talks on a final peace settlement stalled.
REUTERS Reut13:51 04-10-02
Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. |
