Homicide Bus Bomber Kills 16, Wounds 100 in Jerusalem

June 11, 2003

JERUSALEM — A homicide bomber dressed as an ultra-Orthodox Jew blew himself up on a bus in downtown Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon, killing 16 people and wounding scores of others. The Hamas militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Paramedics and police said approximately 100 people were wounded, including eight in critical condition.

Officials said 10 of the people who died were aboard the bus, and the others were in its vicinity when the bomb went off. The homicide bomber also died in the blast.

About an hour later, an Israeli Apache helicopter fired missiles at a car in Gaza City, targeting a senior Hamas militant identified as Tito Massoud, a commander of the Hamas military wing.

Witnesses said the helicopter fired two missiles at a car stuck in a traffic jam in the neighborhood of Shijaiyah and then fired again after a group of people gathered around the stricken vehicle.

Doctors said seven Palestinians were killed and at least 30 were wounded in the attack.

Two bodies were taken out of the car, one decapitated. The dead included Massoud, 35, and another Hamas militant, Soffil Abu Nahez, 29.

About two hours after the Jerusalem bombing, Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. On Tuesday, the group had threatened to take bloody revenge after Israel fired seven missiles at a convoy in Gaza City carrying Hamas co-founder and policymaker Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who escaped with minor injuries.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Wednesday's bus bombing was "a message to all the Zionist criminals that they are not safe and that the Palestinian fighters are capable of reaching them everywhere."

Zahar stopped short at the time of claiming direct responsibility for the blast, but Hamas later said on its Web site that its Izz-el-Deen al-Qassam military wing had carried out the attack.

"The response is continuing," Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters.

A visibly angry President Bush condemned the Jerusalem bombing and urged all nations to cut off financial aid to terror groups and "isolate those who hate so much that they are willing to kill."

"It's clear there are people in the Middle East who hate peace," the president said later.

"I strongly condemn the killings ... I call upon all the free world, nations which love peace, to not only condemn the killings but to use every ounce of their power to prevent them from happening in the future."

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the Jerusalem bombing as a "terrorist" attack and called for an end to all violence. "This empty circle must stop immediately," he said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement: "Stopping this deterioration necessitates that all parties should comply to a cease-fire and end violence and to start serious efforts to implement the road map."

The Jerusalem explosion occurred during evening rush hour on city bus No. 14 on Jaffa Street, the city's main thoroughfare, near the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market that repeatedly has been targeted by Palestinian militants in the past.

A Palestinian man dressed as an Orthodox Jew stood up in the aisle of the bus and then detonated the explosives strapped to his body.

The blast blew out windows and tore a large hole into the left side of the red-and-white bus, peeling back its roof and blackening the inside. Passengers were hurled out by the force of the blast.

Chen Knafo, a security guard at a nearby bank, said he saw a teenage girl blown out of the bus. "I took her aside and gave her first aid until a medic came," said Knafo, whose white shirt was soaked with blood.

Rescue worker Gershon Kletzkin said he was in a nearby jewelry store when he heard the explosion. He saw a plume of smoke and people being hurled into the air, he said.

Hagid Stein, who works at a shoe store down the street, said she had just gotten off the bus when the bomb went off.

"I didn't know where to go, where to run," she said, shaking and crying. "I don't believe I'm so lucky."

Israel's Haaretz daily newspaper reported that after the explosion, right-wing activists gathered near the scene of the blast and chanted "Death to Arabs."

In Gaza City, after the Israeli rocket attack, Jamil Hamdia cried as he carried his 11-year-old wounded cousin through Shifa Hospital and denounced Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who has called for Palestinians to stop attacking Israelis.

"Where is Abu Mazen to come and see?" wailed Hamdia. "Are we cheap, to be killed like this? If that makes him a good leader I think his place is not among us."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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