Nine killed in double Jerusalem suicide bombing

News May 2003 Al-Jazeerah.info

Nine killed in double Jerusalem suicide bombing
(AFP), Khaleej Times, 18 May 2003

JERUSALEM - Israeli-Palestinian peace seemed remote as ever on Sunday as a double suicide attack killed seven people plus the bombers in Jerusalem, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to put off a crucial trip to Washington. The blasts came hours after Sharon had his first talks with Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas on implementing an international peace plan known as the roadmap, which ended inconclusively.

One suicide bomber blew himself up after boarding a number 6 bus in the city’s French Hill area, killing seven other people, and a higher death toll was narrowly avoided when a second attacker exploded prematurely just a stone’s throw away, police said.

Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishki said the first bomber was disguised as an Orthodox Jew and that a skullcap and prayer shawl were found on him.

He told reporters that the second assailant was caught in the security net set up in the area and only killed himself when he detonated his bomb.

The deadly blast in the annexed east Jerusalem neighbourhood was the first suicide attack in Jerusalem in six months and the first inside Israel since three people were torn to shreds in a Tel Aviv pub three weeks ago.

The double assault came hours after another suicide bomber, also disguised a a Jew, killed two Jewish settlers in the southern West Bank city of Hebron Saturday night.

The worst spate of anti-Israeli attacks this year prompted Sharon to postpone a trip to Washington, where he was due to meet with US President George W. Bush and hold crucial talks on the roadmap, which Israel has refused to accept without changes.

According to Israeli public radio, Sharon decided not to leave the country Sunday in order “to personally supervise the fight against terrorism”.

Abbas, during his first meeting with the Israeli premier since being sworn in on April 30, had given him assurances that the Palestinian side would make a “real and sincere effort” to curb militant groups, Sharon’s office said.

There was no immediate claim for the Jerusalem attacks.

Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantissi told AFP Sunday that the latest attacks were not linked to the Sharon-Abbas talks but were a response to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

According to a statement from Sharon’s office, Abbas deplored the Hebron attack and the two leaders had “agreed to pursue their talks in the near future following Mr. Sharon’s return from the United States”.

The Palestinian side said that the meeting between the two men had elicited “no concrete result”.

“Mr Abbas urged the Israeli Prime Minister to apply the road map and he responded with generalities,” said Nabil Abu Rudeina, principal adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Abbas was hoping to secure a clear commitment from Sharon on the roadmap, but the latest flare-up could put peace efforts on the back burner once again.

Hours after two settlers were killed in the Hebron suicide attack, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian claimed to have infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank.

The two men opened fire inside the Shaarei Tikva settlement near the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank, injuring two residents before being shot down, Israeli military sources said.

Violence also continued in the Gaza Strip, with an 18-year-old Palestinian shot dead by Israeli troops early Sunday in the southern city of Khan Yunis, Palestinian security sources said.

The killing came as the Israeli army was still reoccupying some areas of the northern Gaza Strip, in a bid to further dismantle local radical groups and stem rocket attacks on settlements and army positions inside the strip as well as nearby Israeli towns.

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