At Least 7 Die in Jerusalem Blast
June 19, 2002 -- A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus station in Jerusalem today, killing at least six bystanders just hours after the Israeli government, in a major policy shift, said it would seize and hold Palestinian lands until the "terror attacks stop."
Jerusalem Police Chief Mickey Levy said a man came out of a car and rushed toward a crowd of people gathered at a bus station in the French Hill neighborhood in northeastern Jerusalem. He was pursued by a security officer who failed to catch up with him. The man blew himself up near the bus station.
Police and rescue workers said that besides the seven deaths, including that of the bomber, about 35 people were injured in the blast.
A few hours after the attack, Israeli helicopter gunships fired at least three missiles into Gaza City. The army said the helicopters hit a couple of metal factories used for manufacturing weapons, and then left.
And Palestinian sources told ABCNEWS that Israeli tanks and troops swept into the West Bank city of Ramallah after the latest suicide bombing and arrested a suspected militant before withdrawing from the city.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant group with ties to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization, claimed responsibility for today's suicide attack, according to a report by al Manar, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah television station.
At the bus station in French Hill today, witnesses said the explosion blew out the bus shelter, and body parts and pieces of clothing were scattered around the site, which was at a busy junction frequented by Israeli soldiers and settlers.
According to Levy, the suicide bomber was driven to the site in a red Audi, which immediately drove away. Jerusalem police have launched a manhunt for the driver.
The explosion came a day after a Palestinian suicide bombing attack on a crowded Jerusalem bus killed 19 people, including several high-school students, in the city's worst attack in six years.
The neighborhood where today's attack took place is an area that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and has been targeted in the past.
A ‘Major Change’
Minutes after today's suicide attack, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer condemned it and said the recent escalating violence in the region made it "hard to get people to focus on peace."
President Bush was expected to deliver a foreign policy speech on the Middle East this week, which experts hope will provide the framework for future peace negotiations and the ultimate formation of a Palestinian state.
But speaking to reporters in Washington, Fleischer said it was not the right time for Bush to lay out his Mideast diplomatic proposals. "It's obvious that the immediate aftermath is not the right time," he said. "The president knows what he wants to say. The president will share it when … it can do the most good."
Fleischer's comments came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, following a late-night meeting, released a statement saying Israel would hold Palestinian lands indefinitely until the attacks stopped. Sharon's comments came before the latest attack.
Israeli tanks and troops rolled into the West Bank cities of Jenin, Nablus and Qalqilya following the announcement, as Palestinian officials immediately denounced Israel's new policy, calling it an "open invitation" to more violence.
But the Israeli government made it clear it would seize more Palestinian land if it felt such action was warranted. "Additional acts of terror will lead to the taking of additional areas," the statement said.
Calling the announcement a "major change in our policy," Arie Mekel, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, told reporters: "From now on, anytime that there will be an act of terror against the citizens of Israel, against the state of Israel, Israel will respond by capturing a part of the Palestinian-held territory. We will keep these territories until terror will be stopped."
Tanks, Troops Enter West Bank Cities
In the West Bank, there was little sign of hope that any peace proposal could ease the situation on the ground.
Witnesses in Jenin said clashes broke out before dawn when Israeli tanks and troops, supported by helicopter gunships, began rolling into the town.
Residents of Jenin, who saw heavy fighting in an earlier Israeli military operation, said Israeli forces entered the town this morning with mobile homes on flatbed trucks of the kind often used for setting up permanent positions, sparking fears that the new incursion would be a long one.
The Israeli army also moved into Nablus, the largest West Bank city, and withdrew after arresting a number of suspected militants, witnesses said. However, Israeli tanks and troops have surrounded the outskirts of the city and Israeli military officials said the city was being sealed off. A curfew has been imposed in Jenin and Qalqilya.
Although Israeli security was tightened in recent days following Israeli intelligence warnings of likely suicide attacks, the security failed to prevent the recent assaults.
The militant Islamic group Hamas took responsibility for Tuesday's attack and said the suicide bomber, who carried a bag of explosives on a crowded city bus, was a resident of Nablus.
Israeli officials hold Arafat's Palestinian Authority to blame for terrorist actions, arguing it has done too little to prevent them.
When he was asked about the latest bombing tonight, the Palestinian leader said nothing. But The Associated Press reported he is appealing to his people to stop attacking Israeli civilians, and said aides said he plans to speak tomorrow, probably on television.
Some Palestinians are already starting to speak out. Today 50 of them took out a full page ad in Jerusalem's leading Arabic newspaper to condemn suicide attacks, and to call on those responsible for them to stop.
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials say the recent roadblocks, incursions, and damage it has suffered during earlier Israeli military operations have crippled its ability to control such attacks.
ABCNEWS' Gillian Findlay, Bruno Nota and Nasser Atta in Jerusalem contributed to this report.