Ten Jewish settlers were killed and between 25 and 30 injured when Palestinian fighters ambushed a bus near the Emmanuel settlement south of Nablus on the West Bank. Hamas claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, as the Israeli inner security cabinet was to meet to discuss a response, said reports.
Already, Israeli F16 fighters were flying over Nablus immediately after the attack, said AFP.
The Israeli papers Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post had said that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group affiliated with Fateh movement, took responsiblity for the attack.
But Hamas claimed its responsibility in a telephone call to the television station owned by Lebanese movement Hizbollah, a journalist with the station said, as quoted by AFP.
Meanwhile, two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up near a hotel in the Gush Katif settlement in the southern Gaza Strip, injuring four people.
ARMY KILLS SUSPECT
AFP said that the Israeli army shot dead a Palestinian man thought to have been involved in the bus attack, quoting a spokesman as saying.
The man was killed in a firefight with troops tracking down an estimated "three Palestinian gunmen who detonated a roadside bomb as the bus was driving near the Jewish settlement, and then sprayed the vehicle with gunfire."
His death brings the overall death toll from the Palestinian uprising against Israel which began in September 2000, to 1,082 -- including 828 Palestinians and 231 Israelis, according to the agency.
ISRAEL’S KITCHEN CABINET MEETING
The Israeli inner security cabinet is due to hold an emergency meeting at 10:30 pm to discuss the attack, Army Radio reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will join Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, and Interior Minister Eli Yishai at the meeting.
Ben-Eliezer is now meeting with senior military advisors, said the Jerusalem Post.
Haaretz said that probably two Palestinian resistance fighters ambushed the bus with rifle fire and hand-grenades.
Reports said that the attackers fired on ambulance services attempting to treat the wounded, said the paper.
It said that a vehicle in front of the bus came under fire first, following which the gunfire was turned towards the bus. The occupants of the vehicle, some of whom were injured, were trapped inside it until resuce workers managed to resuce them.
"There was a huge explosion in the back of the bus...all the windows of the back of the bus were destroyed...the bus continued slowly about 100 metres (yards) and people lay on the floor." one of the passangers on the bus was quoted as saying.
ISRAEL BLAMES PA
As customarily, Israel held the Palestinian Authority responsible for the bus attack, said AFP, citing government spokesman Avi Pazner as saying.
"We hold the Palestinian authorities responsible for the activities of these terrorist groups who operate in full daylight and in the full knowledge of the Palestinian Authority and continue their deadly attacks against civilian men, women and children," Pazner told the agency.
"Israel will certainly find a way to respond to that and continue our fight against the scourge of terrorism," he added.
The White House issued a statement condemning the killings of eight Israelis by Palestinian terrorists this evening outside Emmanuel.
PA CONDEMNS ATTACK
However, the Palestinian Authority condemned the attack, said AFP.
"The Palestinian leadership condemns the military operations that targeted a settlers' bus near a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank and the settlement of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip," a statement carried by the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
The authority has always considered attacks on settlers as an accepted form of national struggle. Settlements are, according to international law, a form of occupation.
But the PA has been trying in vain to impose a cease-fire in response to international pressures, especially from the US.
WHITE HOUSE DEMAND ARAFAT TO BRING ATTACKS TO A HALT
The Americans repeated their demand that “Arafat expend all possible efforts to prevent continued terrorism and a flare-up of violence in the region,” Israel Radio reported – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
