attack in as many days, police officials said. The suicide bomber struck a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, and Israeli police are reporting six fatalities.
Police said at least 35 people were wounded in the attack, at least six of them seriously. The Associated Press quoted an unidentified police official as saying the attacker got out of a red car and set off the explosives. A policeman was chasing the bomber at the time of the attack, in which the officer was reportedly seriously hurt.
The latest attack came as Hamas, the group claiming responsibility for the deadly suicide bombing a day earlier, rejected the idea of an interim Palestinian state as proposed by US President George W. Bush.
HAMAS WARNS
In a telephone interview from Beirut, on Wednesday June 19, Hamas leader Ossama Abou Hemdan told the Voice of America network that suicide bombings will continue "as long as Israel occupies Palestinian territories" and "as long as Israel refuses to negotiate in good faith."
The Hamas official said Israelis have to begin addressing several issues he said they have so far avoided. "They refuse to talk about the Palestinian rights. They refuse the Palestinian state."
"They refuse the return of the refugees. They refuse everything. So the Palestinians are suffering. So the Palestinians came to the point, if he is to suffer at least the Israelis must understand that they will suffer also," the official told VOA.
ISRAEL STRIKES BACK
However the Israeli government warned Wednesday June 19, that the army will take and control parts of the West Bank as long as Palestinian terrorist attacks persist. In a statement Israel said it is the way it responds to what it calls "murderous acts of terrorists".
A senior aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called the Israeli announcement an invitation to violence, VOA reported. The official, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, said that any resistance to the occupation will now be legitimate. Christians living in the region have urged the world to pray for Israel at a time of growing concern about the rapidly escalating conflict.
