GAZA: BUS SUCIDE BOMBERS CLAIM VENEGANCE FOR KILLING OF TWO HAMAS LEADERS SHEIKH AHMED YASSIN AND ABDELAZIZ RANTISSI,

Record ID: 628005

  • Title: GAZA: BUS SUCIDE BOMBERS CLAIM VENEGANCE FOR KILLING OF TWO HAMAS LEADERS SHEIKH AHMED YASSIN AND ABDELAZIZ RANTISSI,
  • Date: 31st August 2004
  • Summary: GAZA (AUGUST 31, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (NIGHT SCENES) WIDE OF DEMONSTRATION IN JABALYA REFUGEE CAMP IN GAZA WIDE OF CHILD WEARING MASK AND CARRYING PLASTIC WEAPON, SITTING ON MAN'S SHOULDERS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CARRYING POSTERS OF SHEIKH AHMED YASSIN AND ABDELAZIZ RANTISSI, TWO SENIOR HAMAS LEADERS KILLED EARLIER THIS YEAR BY ISRAEL SLV MAN CLAPPING AND CHANTING WID
  • Embargoed: 15th September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVAAJQT7N6RWCPSO6958R377Z18I
  • Story Text: Bus suicide bombers claim in pre recorded video venegance for Israeli killing of two Hamas leaders.
    The two bombers who carried out the suicide attacks that killed 16 people in a double bus bombing on Tuesday claimed in a pre-recorded video that they were doing it to avenge the Israeli killing of two senior Hamas leaders earlier this year.
    In a shaky, grainy video in which the two also showed off with Israeli assault weapons, they also said they were carrying out the bombing in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners who are staging a hunger strike in Israeli jails for better conditions.
    The bus bombing was the first significant attack since the killing by Israel of senior Hamas leader Abdelaziz Rantissi, whose death followed the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the militant group's spiritual leader.
    In Gaza, masked gunmen shot assault rifles in the air as thousands marched and chanted waving flags of various militant factions.
    The Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the new attacks as vengeance for Israel's assassination of Hamas's two top leaders in helicopter missile strikes carried out soon after two suicide bombers hit the Israeli port of Ashdod.
    The bombers boarded the buses at the same stop near the central bus station and detonated hidden explosive belts when the two vehicles were just a few dozen metres (yards) apart. The blasts gutted the buses and sent smoke funnelling into the sky.
    Israeli emergency services said at least 15 people were killed and medics said 86 were wounded, some critically.
    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned the bombings and said Israel will take further steps and use all its might to fight Palestinian "terror".
    Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said visiting Egypt, bemoaned the bombings. "Killing civilians, whether from the Palestinian side or Israeli side, will achieve nothing except hatred and more enmity and therefore we condemn that strongly."
    The European Union and Washington echoed Qurie, saying such violence undermines efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict.
    Shortly before the Beersheba bombings, Palestinian militants renewed their vow to continue fighting Israel until it quit all territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
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