Nine die in suicide bomb attack on bus
A Palestinian suicide bomber devastated a bus during the morning rush today - killing himself and eight passengers on a day punctuated by violence from Galilee to Jerusalem’s Old City and the Mediterranean beachfront.
Israel’s military clampdown on the West Bank has kept many Palestinians confined to their homes for most of the past six weeks, but militants continue to elude the troops to carry out shootings and bombings.
‘‘People lucky enough not to face the ugly face of terror can have a much more relaxed opinion about it,’’ said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
‘‘If you live through a day like today, in this country, you can understand our determination.’’
Three Palestinian militants died carrying out attacks. Dozens were injured as new reports of incidents emerged.
US President George W Bush said he was ‘‘distressed’’ to learn of the latest bombing.
‘‘There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process,’’ Bush said as he began a game of golf with his father in Kennebunkport, Maine.
The stepped-up Israeli military effort has included house-to-house searches for the past three days in the West Bank city of Nablus, the city Israel now describes as the main centre for Palestinian suicide bombers.
Israel also blew up nine Palestinian homes today in the West Bank, all of them belonging to militants who carried out or orchestrated prior attacks.
Israel is hoping the practice will discourage would-be assailants who want to spare their families from harm.
However, the only tangible result to date is that militant groups have stopped announcing the names of attackers, and releasing their homemade videos, making it a bit more difficult for Israel to track down the families.
The militant Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at Meron Junction in the Galilee region of northern Israel.
The blast turned the packed green bus into a fireball, charring the insides and shredding the metal panels.
‘‘All repressive security measures will not prevent painful strikes against the (Israeli) occupation,’’ Hamas said in a statement.
The bus was filled with both civilians and soldiers who were headed back to their bases.
The dead included three Israeli soldiers and one Arab Israeli woman, authorities said.
Thirty-seven people were injured, two critically, rescue workers said.
The bomber apparently warned two Arab students of the impending attack, and they got off the bus shortly before it blew up, a police source said. The two students have been detained, the source added.
‘‘There was a lot of screaming, horrible screaming inside the bus,’’ said Avraham Freed, who owns a restaurant near the blast site.
‘‘I saw one person on the ground next to the bus - bodies, parts of bodies, people jumping through the windows.’’
Hours later, police and ultra-Orthodox Jewish volunteers were still picking through the debris to collect remains for burial and evidence for the investigation.
The bus driver, Shmuel Ronen, escaped with light wounds - just as he did six years ago when the bus he was driving in Jerusalem was bombed.
Ron Ratner, a spokesman for the Egged bus company, said security was tight in the coastal town of Haifa, where the trip originated.
But the bomber probably boarded at a stop in one of the Arab villages on the way to the town of Tsfat.
Hamas said the bombing was the second retaliatory strike for Israel’s July 22 air strike that killed a senior Hamas leader, Salah Shehadeh, and 14 others in Gaza City.
Hamas also carried out a bombing at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University last week that killed seven, including five Americans.
The Israeli government said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who turned 73 today, bore ultimate responsibility for not reining in militants during the 22 months of Mideast fighting.
‘‘This Palestinian terror must be uprooted and Israel will not relent,’’ said David Baker, an official at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office.
The Palestinian leadership condemned the bombing, but also accused Sharon of ‘‘war crimes’’ for the Israeli army’s mass detentions, home demolitions and curfews imposed on Palestinians.
Three hours after the bus bombing, a Palestinian attacker opened fire outside the stone walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, sparking a gun battle with police that left three dead.
The Palestinian gunman used a pistol to fire at close range on a truck belonging to Israel’s main phone company, Bezeq. A security guard was killed and the driver was injured, police said.
Israel maintains extremely heavy security in the city, and seconds later, nearby Israeli police began firing.
The gunman was killed by police, and an Arab bystander was hit and killed by crossfire, Israeli officials said.
More than a dozen people were hurt, most of them Palestinians, in the shooting near the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, whose members are loyal to Arafat, claimed responsibility.
In other violence today Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip shot and killed an armed Palestinian dressed in a wet suit as he came ashore in the sands along the Mediterranean coast.
The would-be assailant, armed with an automatic rifle and grenades, apparently swam along the coastline before emerging near the Jewish settlements of Dugit and Alei Sinai, the army said.
