 At
least 19 people were killed and 50 injured Tuesday morning when a suicide
bomber blew himself up on a bus full of passengers, most of them high school
students, in southern Jerusalem.
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- The explosion took place around 8 A.M. near the Pat Junction
on Egged bus line 32A from the neighborhood of Gilo. The blast ripped through
the bus, leaving it a charred, mangled hulk at the side of the road.
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- The wounded were taken to three Jerusalem hospitals for
treatment: Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, which took in 16 people,
Hadassah University Hospital, Mt. Scopus, which also received 16 people,
and Sha'are Zedek Medical Center, to which 18 people were taken.
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- Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack in an official
statement broadcast on the militant movement's television station. It said
that the bomber was Muhammad Haza el-Rol, a 22-year-old student at Beir
Zeit University, and that he came from the Jenin area.
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- Shalom Sabag was driving in front of the red-and-white
Egged commuter bus that had been plying its route through southern Jerusalem
to the city's central bus station during the morning rush hour.
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- "The bodies were piled up near the door of the bus
on the right side. He didn't wait to blow up - he blew up straight away.
I took off the bodies of a two girls and a man.
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- Ruth Elmaliach, a teacher at a high school near the scene
of the explosion, said she was in her car, waiting for the light to change
at the junction, when the explosion went off.
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- "I'm sure our students were on the bus. I saw how
the bus blew up...The bus is always packed at this hour...now we're checking
to see if all the students have arrived but I'm afraid some of them have
not," Elmaliach told Israel Radio.
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- Shlomi Calderon, a witness to the bombing, told Army
Radio, "the bus left the stop and as soon as it entered traffic there
was a very large explosion and all the parts [of the bus] flew everywhere.
There was complete shock in the area. It was horrible, horrible. All of
the bus' parts flew everywhere in a radius of 150 meters."
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- Interior Minister Eli Yishai called upon the IDF to enter
Palestinian-controlled Area-A. "Instead of surrounding ourselves with
a fence, we should surround every village, and every place that there are
terrorists." However, President Moshe Katsav said that the pace at
which the security fence is being built should be increased.
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- PM holds security consultations Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon held security consultations in Jerusalem with Defense Minister Benjamin
Ben-Eliezer and senior defense officials to discuss the bus bombing. Earlier,
the prime minister visited the site of the attack, at the end of which
he questioned the type of state the Palestinians intend to establish.
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- "The horrible pictures we saw here today of these
murderous acts by the Palestinians are stronger than any words," he
said. "It is interesting (to wonder) what kind of Palestinian state
they intend to create. What are they talking about? This terrible thing...
is a continuation of the Palestinian terror which we will fight against."
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- The bombing comes on the eve of President George W. Bush's
much-anticipated address on the Mideast, in which he is widely expected
to lay out a framework on how to create an independent Palestinian state
with a constitution and a unified security force.
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- Bush's vision, which could include a recommendation for
a provisional Palestinian state with temporary borders and limited sovereignty,
may be announced as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.
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- Some observers viewed Sharon's remarks at the site of
the bombing, on a Palestinian state, as a message to Bush. The prime minister,
who in the past has expressed support for the creation of a Palestinian
state, has repeatedly said in recent months that any discussion of statehood
is premature, and that he will not engage in negotiations as long as terror
attacks continue.
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- Earlier Tuesday, David Baker, an aide to the prime minister
said, "The Jerusalem attack indicates that the Palestinian Authority
continues to export terror into Israel... Terror flows from the PA like
an open faucet," he added.
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- Jerusalem police were on high alert throughout Jerusalem
on Monday night, after receiving a specific warning that a suicide bomber
was planning to carry out an attack in the capital.
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- Police had set up roadblocks in various parts of the
city, and a police helicopter had been used in an attempt to locate the
bomber.
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- "There are more warnings," Jerusalem district
Police Chief Mickey Levy told reporters at the scene of the bombing. "We
are deployed and are still searching for the suspects."
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- Levy said that before Tuesday's blast, police had received
what he called a "hot warning" that a bombing was about to take
place in Jerusalem.
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- "Sometimes we succeed in locating the bomber and
sometimes unfortunately we don't succeed in neutralising the bomber...The
warning yesterday (Monday) was general. It was not specific," Levy
said.
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- Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert, however, told Army Radio
that the information received Monday referred to a different bomber and
a different area of the capital and that police were therefore still on
alert.
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- PA condemns suicide bombing
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- The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack and denied
Israeli accusations that it was to blame.
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- "The Palestinian Authority condemns this attack
and repeats its position of not condoning the killing of civilians, both
Palestinians and Israelis," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat
told CNN.
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- "We cannot be blamed for it. We reject any Israeli
attempts to assign blame or fingerpointing at us," he said.
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