Incident

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Incident

Jerusalem bombing kills woman after 7-year lull

23 March 2011 19:03 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A bomb exploded near a bus stop in a Jewish district of Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing a woman and injuring at least 30 people, in an attack police blamed on Palestinian militants, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast, which coincided with an upsurge of violence on the Gaza border that has led to fears of a new war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.
Medics said three people were seriously hurt by the explosion, which hit one of the main routes into central Jerusalem in the early afternoon, shattering the windows of a nearby bus. The dead woman was in her 60s and died in hospital.
Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel’s term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first time Jerusalem had been hit by such a bomb since 2004.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad swiftly denounced the attack. "I condemn this terrorist operation in the strongest possible terms, regardless of who was behind it," he said in a statement released by his office in the West Bank.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on a visit to Cairo, denounced what he called "a horrific terrorist attack" but said he did not think the situation in Israel was deteriorating.
At the height of a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, but which died out in recent years, militants carried out dozens of often deadly bombings in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said the bomb weighed about one or two kilos (2 or 4 lb). "It exploded in a small suitcase on the sidewalk next to the bus stop," he told Israel’s Channel 2 television.
Blood stained the pavement. Israeli television broke into normal programming to show scores of ambulances converging on the scene, taking the injured to nearby hospitals.
"I saw two women lying on the ground, unconscious and covered in blood," medic Motti Bukchi, who arrived swiftly on the scene, told Israel’s Channel Two television.
PEACE IMPASSE
Peace talks aimed at ending the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians broke down last year after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a partial freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank.
Israeli security officials have cautioned that the absence of any peace initiative could spark a new Palestinian uprising. Over 500 Israeli civilians died in 140 Palestinian suicide bomb attacks from 2000 to 2007. More than 4,500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the same period.
Netanyahu delayed his planned departure for Russia after the incident to consult with security officials. His office said he would leave later in the day and hold talks with Russian leaders on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, the prime minister warned Hamas over rising violence in Gaza following a barrage of rockets and mortar fire in recent days. Hamas say the attacks were in response to Israeli bombings and killings.
On Tuesday, Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed four Palestinian civilians, including three children playing football, and five militants, medical officials said.
Netanyahu has voiced regret for the civilian deaths but said Israel could not ignore attacks on its territory.
"No country would be prepared to absorb protracted missile fire on its cities and civilians, and of course the State of Israel is not prepared to," he told parliament hours before the Jerusalem blast.
"It could be that this matter will entail exchanges of blows, and it may take a certain period of time, but we are very determined to strike at the terrorist elements and deny them the means of attacking our citizens," he said.
Israel launched a three-week war on the impoverished coastal enclave in 2009, killing about 1,400 Palestinians and drawing heavy international censure. Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in a 2007 coup, had mostly held fire since.