Jerusalem bus blast leaves 11 dead, 48 hurt

By TIMOTHY HERITAGE

JERUSALEM - A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 11 other people when he blew himself up on a crowded commuter bus during morning rush hour in Jerusalem.

Hospital officials said children on their way to school were among more than 48 people wounded in the first major attack since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called elections for January 28.

Rescue workers said the bomber apparently set off his explosives at the front of the bus.

A charred torso hung out through the hole where one of the windows used to be, as rescue workers wheeled stretchers to the door of the bus to look for more wounded.

"The explosion was so loud I thought the roof had come off," said Ariel Gino, of Kiryat Menahem suburb where the blast occurred.

"I rushed out and saw people lying on the street. Some were screaming, some were crying. There were about five or six people still in the bus. They weren't moving."

A reporter at the scene said he saw a child's schoolbag in the debris.

The bombing, which occurred at 6.10pm NZ time, was the first suicide bombing since November 4, when a bomber killed two people in a shopping centre in a small town, and also the first suicide bombing to hit Jerusalem since June.

Then, Israel responded to back-to-back suicide bombings by sending troops to reoccupy Palestinian-ruled cities in the West Bank.

In deciding his response this time, Sharon faces the added complication of a party vote next week to see if he or right-wing challenger Benjamin Netanyahu will lead his Likud Party into the general election in January.

Palestinian militants have waged a campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli buses and other targets in a two-year-old uprising against occupation.

Earlier yesterday, Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles backed by helicopter gunships rumbled into the southern Gaza Strip and blew up the home of a senior Palestinian militant.

Israel launched the raid near the town of Khan Younis after its Housing Minister, Natan Sharansky, told Washington that work on a Middle East peace plan should wait until after January's election, further dimming hopes of a quick end to two years of violence.

Witnesses said tanks surrounded the home of Talal Abu Zarifa in the village of Abasan and ordered people to leave before blowing it up, a standard punishment for Palestinian militants.

They said Abu Zarifa, a member of the radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was on Israel's list of wanted militants but was not at home at the time.

Troops also cut off electricity in Abasan and entered a local military hospital, and tanks and armoured vehicles rolled into the nearby villages of Khuza and Boni Suhaila east of Khan Younis after entering Gaza from Israel.

Israeli forces have regularly entered Palestinian-ruled areas to root out militants in efforts to quell the uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Three people were hurt in Abasan, medical officials said.

A quartet of Middle East mediators, led by the United States, have been working on the peace plan for months, without obvious signs of progress.

The aim is to lay out a transition to Palestinian statehood within three years, starting with the reform of Palestinian institutions and a partial Israeli troop withdrawal.

* An American woman missionary was found shot dead last night in southern Lebanon in the infirmary where she worked in Sidon. Authorities said no motive was known for the shooting.

- REUTERS

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