A suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded Jerusalem bus yesterday morning, killing seven people and wounding more than 60, 11 of them seriously, police and rescue workers said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came just a day before the world court is to begin hearings on the West Bank separation barrier Israel says is crucial for keeping out bombers.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The huge blast went off around 8:30am, during morning rush hour, as the bus drove past a gas station in downtown Jerusalem. The explosion ripped apart the back of the green bus and scattered body parts and shattered glass across a two-block radius. The windows were blown out, the windscreen cracked and the roof was raised.
"It was like an earthquake," Ora Yairov, who was at the gas station during the explosion, told Channel One television. "The station was filled with shattered glass and pieces of flesh."
An hour after the blast, bodies still lay on the sidewalk. Rescue workers wrapped them in white sheets and put body parts in body bags. Security forces stood on the roof of the nearby gas station watching the crowd.
Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the blast killed seven people in addition to the bomber. Rescue officials said at least 60 people were injured.
The explosion came from a medium-sized bomb laced with pieces of iron that exploded in the center of the bus, police said.
Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have killed hundreds of Israelis in such bombings in more than three years of fighting.
Hamas had called all its bombers to avenge a Feb. 11 Israeli raid into the Gaza Strip that left 15 Palestinians dead. In a statement posted on a Hamas Web site, the group demanded Israelis leave all of Israel, "if not, they will face the same destiny of those Zionists who were attacked in the martyrdom operation in Jerusalem today."
Yesterday's bombing was the first since a suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus near Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's house on Jan. 29, killing 10 passengers. The latest bombing was only a few blocks away from that blast.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned the attack in a statement and called for "an immediate halt to these actions," which gives Israel an excuse for continuing building the barrier and carrying out raids against militants.
Israeli officials said the blast proved the need for the West Bank barrier, which is being challenged at the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
"We are showing everyone that a security fence is not just Israel's obligation, but also its right," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said. "We are letting the victims of terror speak for us at the Hague."
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
RSS