Wednesday September 10, after up to 16 people were killed in two suicide bombings in Jerusalem and at a military base near Tel Aviv, Israel media reported.
Witnesses said Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of four top officials of the militant group which claimed Tuesday’s twin blasts, was injured while his son and bodyguard died in the strike.
The attack, that reportedly involved Israeli F16 aircraft and a helicopter gunship, came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was cutting short an historic visit to India to co-ordinate his country’s response to the suicide bombings which shattered the Middle East peace plan.
Also on Wednesday, September 10, Israeli troops began military operations in the Ramallah-area village of Rantis in response to Tuesday night’s twin Palestinian homicide bomb attacks, Israel Radio reported.
BOMBERS FELLOW STUDENTS
Both bombers reportedly came from Rantis, and were fellow students at a nearby Palestinian university, added the Jerusalem based Christian news service Jerusalem Newswire (JNW).
Israeli troops also arrested 15 "terror suspects," during overnight raids in Samaria, shortly after government officials met for an emergency session in Tel Aviv, reports said.
Meanwhile hospitals worked around the clock to treat the wounded in a desperate attempt to prevent the death toll of Tuesday’s suicide attacks of climbing.
ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILLED
In the first bombing, seven Israelis soldiers were killed and over 30 others were wounded at a bus stop in the Greater Tel Aviv town of Rishon Letzion. An eighth victim reportedly succumbed to injuries sustained in the attack Wednesday morning.
Another seven and possible eight people, including the bomber, died when a second blast shook the German Colony residential area in western Jerusalem at the entrance to the popular Hillel Café. Up to 50 people were injured, several of them seriously, witnesses said.
"The western half of the city was instantaneously turned into a bedlam of sirens and horns as emergency services raced to the scene," reported the Jerusalem Newswire (JNW). Israeli television footage showed scenes of Arabs in the Gaza Strip rejoicing at the news of the attacks, JNW said.
HAMAS APPLAUDS ATTACKS
In a statement Hamas applauded the attacks as "pay back time" for Israel. The group’s political leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi said after the initial blast near Tel Aviv that "Israelis should pay the price of their terror action."
Hamas opposes the existence of Israel and has carried out suicide attacks that are estimated to have killed hundreds of people in recent years.
But Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, who accepted his appointment Wednesday, September 10, condemned "all acts of killing that target innocents, whether they be Palestinians… or the Israelis who were victims of today’s explosion".
Qureia later told reporters after a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that he would start forming a Cabinet. "It will be a crisis Cabinet," said Qureia, who became the Arafat’s nominee for prime minister after Mahmoud Abbas resigned from the post last weekend.
He had previously said he would only accept the appointment if he had guarantees that Israel would change its policies.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY "FAILED"
The new prime minister called for both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to "examine the most effective ways to put an end to the killing", news reports said. However Israeli officials said the PA had failed "totally to live up to its roadmap commitments".
"Now Israel will do what is necessary," Dore Gold told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Israel earlier said it had "cross marked" Hamas leaders for assassinations.
In Washington meanwhile, the White House called the bombings "vicious" saying "they underscore the fact that fighting terror is crucial to bringing peace to the Middle East," the Voice of America network reported.
