Israel to Reoccupy Palestinian Areas
Thu Jun 20, 1:27 AM ET
By SUSAN SEVAREID, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - A suicide bomber sprang from a car, slipped past a pair of policemen and blew himself up at a busy Jerusalem intersection Wednesday, killing at least seven other people in the second deadly attack in the city in two days.
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Responding, Israeli forces entered the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Qalqiliya early Thursday, and declared curfews, the military said in a statement. Troops also moved into Beitunia, a suburb of Ramallah, and searched for suspects. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three others were wounded in a shootout in Qalqiliya, the military said.
The latest action follows a statement by Israel on Wednesday that it would seize and hold parts of Palestinian territory in retaliation for attacks. The change in policy was a reaction to a suicide bombing on a commuter bus that killed 19 Israelis on Tuesday. In Washington, President Bush ( news - web sites) decided to hold off revealing his plan for a future Palestinian state because of the new violence.
In Wednesday's suicide attack, the bomber emerged from a red Audi and dashed toward a concrete bus stop where he detonated his explosives. Israeli police first put the number of victims at six but raised the number to seven Thursday after forensic examination of body parts. More than 35 people were wounded, many of them seriously.
A group tied to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites)'s Fatah ( news - web sites) faction, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, claimed responsibility for the bombing, according to Al Manner television station, operated from Lebanon by the militant Islamic group Hezbollah.
Shortly after the attack, Israeli helicopters fired rockets at metal workshops in the Gaza Strip ( news - web sites) where weapons are manufactured. Thirteen Palestinians were hurt, two seriously, Palestinian doctors said.
U.S. officials said Bush had delayed his announcement because it was unlikely to have any positive effect during such a sensitive time. Aides said the announcement might be made next week. A trip to the Middle East next week by Secretary of State Colin Power also was put on hold.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ( news - web sites) adamantly opposes any form of Palestinian statehood at this time, and blames Arafat for failing to stop the attacks.
Arafat was expected to call for a halt to attacks against Israeli civilians in a speech to be broadcast Thursday on Palestinian TV.
In the speech, according to an advance copy obtained by The Associated Press, Arafat urges an end to the attacks because "these operations have given the Israeli government the excuse to reoccupy our land, killing hundreds of our innocent people and destroying all that we have built in the last eight years."
The difficulty of stopping attacks was underscored early Thursday, when an armed Palestinian tried to break into a high school in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron. Soldiers shot and killed the attacker, the military said.
In one of his strongest condemnations ever, Pope John Paul ( news - web sites) II decried Tuesday's attack, saying "those who plot and plan such barbarous attacks will have to answer before God."
More than 50 prominent Palestinians signed a full-page newspaper advertisement in Al Quds, a leading Palestinian daily, urging groups behind deadly assaults on Israeli civilians to "stop sending our young people to carry out such attacks."
The site attacked Wednesday had been targeted by Palestinian assailants in the past and was heavily guarded. But the attacker made it past a pair of border policemen.
"The police chased him to try to stop him, and when he got to the (bus stop), he blew up a large device," said Jerusalem Police Chief Mickey Levy. One officer who chased the bomber was badly hurt, he said.
Body parts and shattered glass littered the street. Religious volunteers picked through shrubbery for bits of human remains.
An overturned baby carriage was covered with black plastic by rescue workers. Government spokesman Danny Seaman said a baby wasn't among the dead, but one had been rushed to a hospital.
The Palestinian newspaper advertisement, whose signers included legislator Hanan Ashrawi and the Palestinians' senior Jerusalem official, Sari Nusseibeh, said: "We see no results in such attacks, but a deepening of the hatred between both peoples and a deepening of the gap between us."
The text urged all Palestinians who support such a call to sign on. Polls consistently find a majority of Palestinians support suicide bombings, but less strongly since Israel's recent military campaign in the West Bank.
"I have begun to discern developments on the Palestinian side that they are, for the first time, doing some soul-searching about 'What have we done? What have we achieved?'" Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Jewish delegates to an annual Zionist Congress in Jerusalem.
Israeli troops, meanwhile, fortified their positions in the West Bank, suggesting plans for an extended stay. Just outside the Jenin refugee camp, seven mobile homes were set up. The move came after the announcement that would reoccupy Palestinian areas in response to attacks. Tuesday's bus bombing was the worst attack in Jerusalem in six years.
The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blast in a leaflet, warning of a prolonged offensive against Israel — "the war of the buses." Hamas, based in Gaza, said dozens of suicide bombers were waiting to strike.
The Palestinian leadership condemned both attacks, but Israel still holds Arafat responsible. While condemning the attacks, Palestinian Cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman said Israel's occupation of Palestinian land was the underlying cause of the violence.
"We all denounce any operation against civilians — if they are Palestinians or Israelis — but the Israeli government should ask itself about what they are doing today ... and their decision to reoccupy our cities," he said.
In the Jenin refugee camp, hundreds of soldiers moved house-to-house, searching for Palestinian gunmen and fugitives. The center of the camp was gutted in April during Israel's military campaign targeting militants.
About 10 busloads of Palestinian men were rounded up and driven, blindfolded and handcuffed, toward a military base west of the city, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.
Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinians' West Bank security chief, said the Palestinians cannot cooperate with Israel to arrest those behind suicide attacks.
"As long as the Israelis are continuing their invasion — using their tanks, F-16s and Apaches (attack helicopters) — there will be no arrests of any Palestinian," Rajoub told the AP.
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