VARIOUS: ISRAELI TROOPS RE-ENTER PALESTINIAN AREAS AS SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 16 IN ATTACK ON BUS

Record ID: 640569

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI TROOPS RE-ENTER PALESTINIAN AREAS AS SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 16 IN ATTACK ON BUS
  • Date: 7th June 2002
  • Summary: (W8)JENIN, WEST BANK (JUNE 5, 2002) (REUTERS) SLV PALESTINIAN RESIDENTS OF JENIN RUNNING IN STREET PRIOR TO ISRAELI MILITARY INCURSION INTO CITY; SLV PALESTINIANS RUNNING IN STREET (3 SHOTS) AV HELICOPTERS FIRING; SLV WOMEN AND CHILDREN RUNNING IN STREET (3 SHOTS) (U6) JENIN, WEST BANK (JUNE 5, 2002) (REUTERS) SLV ISRAELI TANKS AND ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS (APCs) MANOEUVRING IN STREETS (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 22nd June 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MEGIDDO JUNCTION, NETANYA AND HADERA, ISRAEL/ GAZA/ JENIN, RAMALLAH AND HEBRON, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACL6NEDE6CI4TSLXOSA2U28G6L
  • Story Text: A Palestinian suicide attacker has exploded a powerful car bomb next to an Israeli bus, igniting an inferno and killing at least 16 people in a major setback to international peace efforts.
    Hours after the bombing, on the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war, Israeli tanks rolled into Jenin, a West Bank city regarded by Israel as a militant stronghold.
    Following the car bombing, Palestinian residents of the West Bank city of Jenin were in panic, fearing Israeli retaliation to the latest attack.
    Israeli tanks swept into Jenin, 10 kms (six miles) away regarded by Israel as a militant stronghold and a possible launchpad for the latest attack.
    Jenin's refugee camp was the scene of the fiercest fighting during a recent Israeli military offensive in the West Bank.
    No casualties were reported in Jenin in what the Israeli army said was a routine patrol.
    The blast at the Megiddo road junction, northern Israel, claimed the highest number of Israeli deaths of any attack since the end early last month of a crushing six-week military offensive through the West Bank, launched in response to a wave of suicide bombings.
    The car blew up during the morning rush hour near Megiddo, the Hebrew name for Armageddon. The bus had been carrying civilians and soldiers from Tel Aviv to Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee.
    Dozens of Israelis were wounded and evacuated to nearby hospitals.
    Among them was Micky Harel, the driver of the bus involved in the attack. He was wounded and evacuated to the Hadera Hilel Yafe hospital. When asked how many people were in the bus Harel answered: "The majority were soldiers" When asked if he could remember anything about the first seconds after the explosion, Harel said: "That the bus was thrown around, and I have lost control -- the bus was dragged, and turned over, dragged again many meters and turned over again and was back on its wheels again."
    Asked whether he knew any of the passengers, he indicated "I knew most of them, I knew most of the soldiers."
    Harel said the deaths of the soldiers was a matter he found extremely hard to deal with.
    The bombing followed a resurgence of Palestinian suicide bombings following an Israeli military offensive in the West Bank that Israel said was intended to halt such attacks, which are part of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
    The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad has said it carried out the bombing of a bus near Megiddo junction. Today marked the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war in which Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The militant group opposes interim peace accords with Israel.
    Abdallah Shami, the Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, said "...the general secretary Ramadan Shallah, he claimed the attack."
    The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing and rejected Israel's charge that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was responsible for the attack.
    Yasser Abed Rabbo, Palestinian Minister of Information said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would use Wednesday morning's attack as a reason for mounting another offensive against the Palestinians cities in the West Bank.
    "It's obvious that Sharon is preparing another offensive against the Palestinian cities, towns and villages. He always uses such terrorist attacks as a pretext in order to continue his war against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority".
    He said the Palestinian Authority no longer had the ability to prevent attacks.
    Israeli forces entered the West bank city of Hebron on Wednesday (June 5), arresting at least one Palestinian and imposed a curfew.
    The attack on the bus in northern Israel followed two days of talks between George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Palestinian and Israeli leaders.
    Tenet has been leading the latest diplomatic drive to halt the violence, in which at least 1,379 Palestinians and 486 Israelis had been killed before Wednesday's attack.
    He discussed reforms of the Palestinian security forces with Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday (June 4). Arafat proposed amalgamating nine key Palestinian Authority security services into three agencies.
    Israel made any resumption of peace negotiations with the Palestinians conditional on an end to suicide attacks and on wide-ranging reforms within Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
    For Israel, the goal of the reforms to the security services would be to increase the Authority's control over Palestinian armed groups and make it more accountable for their actions.
    And later on Wednesday, Israelis began burying men and women who were killed in the Megiddo blast. Sariel Katz, a 21-year-old soldier was buried in the Israeli town of Natanya, at a military ceremony which included a 21-gun salute.
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