MIDDLE EAST: BOMB EXPLODES AT JERUSALEM'S HEBREW UNIVERSITY KILLING AT LEAST 7 PEOPLE AND INJURING 80 OTHERS.
Record ID:
358701
MIDDLE EAST: BOMB EXPLODES AT JERUSALEM'S HEBREW UNIVERSITY KILLING AT LEAST 7 PEOPLE AND INJURING 80 OTHERS.
- Title: MIDDLE EAST: BOMB EXPLODES AT JERUSALEM'S HEBREW UNIVERSITY KILLING AT LEAST 7 PEOPLE AND INJURING 80 OTHERS.
- Date: 31st July 2002
- Summary: (U3) JERUSALEM (JULY 31, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. GV/PAN: WOUNDED CARRIED ON STRETCHERS OUT OF THE CAMPUS (2 SHOTS) 0.18 2. GV/PAN: MEN RUNNING, CARRYING WOUNDED PERSON ON STRETCHER 0.27 3. GV: INJURED WOMAN SITTING IN WHEELCHAIR CRYING 0.31 4. TV/PAN: WOUNDED WOMAN, HER DRESS COVERED WITH BLOOD, CARRIED FROM SCENE 0.41 5. TV/PAN:
- Embargoed: 15th August 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JERUSALEM/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK/ GAZA
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVAC02X6Z246RA13P1BBU8MRYF7S
- Story Text: A Palestinian bombing has killed at least seven people
and wounded more than 80 in a cafeteria at an international
students centre in Jerusalem's Hebrew University.
The military wing of the fundamentalist Islamic group
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday (July
31, 2002), which it said was in revenge for an air strike in Gaza
last week that killed its commander and 14 other Palestinians,
including nine children.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing.
The blast in the Frank Sinatra centre, which followed a
Palestinian suicide bombing that wounded four people in
Jerusalem on Tuesday, rocked the university's Mount Scopus
campus near Arab East Jerusalem.
Police called the explosion a Palestinian attack but said
they did not know if a suicide bomber was involved.
The cafeteria's windows were blown out and a thick cloud
of smoke and the stench of charred human flesh met medics who
rushed to the scene. Emergency workers carried more than 60
wounded out on stretchers.
Police said at least seven people were killed and more
than 80 wounded.
Some of the injured, their faces streaked with blood,
wandered dazed from the building on the campus, where guards
normally patrol walkways and rooftops.
"I say that this is totally an unacceptable situation,
this is not the way to fight people who are your enemies, or
something like that, this is not the way of war, simply this
is not the way", said Sahar Mohammed, an Israeli-Arab student.
"It is awful, it was always a safe place, it's many Arab
students also here, I am in shock, I'm shocked", said student
Yuri Steinsapper, referring to hundreds of Israeli Arab
students who attend the Hebrew University each year.
The wounded were evacuated to hospitals in Jerusalem. Some
of them arrived at the Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital which
neighbours the university gates.
Shortly before the blast, Israel's security cabinet
decided to pursue a punitive policy against families of
Palestinian suicide bombers in a bid to deter such attacks in
which over 230 Israelis have been killed in two years,
political sources said.
But it was unclear how the government planned to vault the
legal hurdles it has already faced in threatening to exile
relatives of suicide bombers from the West Bank to the
fenced-in Gaza Strip.
"This is another despicable act of Palestinian violence so
horrendous that it almost defies words. Just this morning an
arms explosives factory was found inside the Palestinian
legislative committee in Jenin. Now this horrendous act
against a campus in a university, an institute of learning The
word Palestinian is becoming synonymous with the word
terrorism. It's really, it's too horrible for words", Mark
Sofer, senior Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said.
The political sources said the security cabinet decided
after four hours of deliberations on a package of steps to be
taken against families of suicide bombers.
They said the measures included exile -- in accordance
with guidelines set earlier this month by Israel's attorney
general -- house demolitions, property expropriation and
trials for relatives who knew of planned attacks but did not
stop them.
"This is a reaction to the continuity of the Israeli
bloody practices in the Palestinian territories, such attacks
will not bring any good to any of the two sides, exactly and
similarly, the Israeli practices cannot bring about any
achievements towards achieving the Israeli objectives",
Palestinian labour minister, Ghassan al-Khatib, said in
reaction to the blast.
The army's detention two weeks ago of 22 male relatives of
suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank and threat to
deport them to the Gaza Strip drew criticism from its closest
ally, the United States, and the United Nations.
Challenging the edict, Israeli Attorney General Eliyakim
Rubinstein said exile could be an option only if Israeli
authorities proved a family member was linked to an attack.
Palestinian militants have carried out dozens of suicide
bombings since a Palestinian uprising for independence began
nearly two years ago. Israel reoccupied seven West Bank cities
last month after suicide attacks killed 26 people.
"We do not target civilians and we do not want to kill
civilians yet when the enemy attacks Palestinian children,
women and sheikhs and when it destroys residential areas,
(destroying) a residential neighbourhood with people inside,
(the Israelis) are pushing Palestinians to respond as this and
they (the Israelis) must take responsibility for it", sheikh
Ahmed Yassin the spiritual leader of Hamas movement said in Gaza.
At least 1,471 Palestinians and 573 Israelis have been
killed since a Palestinian uprising for independence erupted
in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.
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