stop early Sunday, July 11, killing a woman and wounding more than 20 other people, police and news reports said. The attack came just two days after the United Nations World Court ordered Israel to dismantle a controversial wall which Israel says it needs to protect the Jewish state against terrorist attacks.
Israel Radio said the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – the armed branch of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement – claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the bombing avenged "assassinations" of two top Brigades commanders and the killings of other Palestinians in IDF incursions in Gaza and the West Bank this year, reported the internet edition of Haaretz newspaper.
"This says that we can reach every place, even when there is a fence," The Associated Press (AP) news agency quoted an Al Aqsa spokesman as saying.
Israeli police closed off a large section of the street – a main thoroughfare in the city – and scoured the area for additional devices, Haaretz said. Several Palestinians in the area who lack authorization to be in Israel were reportedly briefly detained.
"MASSIVE EXPLOSION"
"I heard a massive explosion and ran to the scene," Haaretz quoted Hagit Cohen who lives one street away from the blast as saying. "I thought it was the end of the world." "I heard the explosion and I saw the hysteria," another witness, Shlomi Ben-Abu, reportedly told Army Radio. "A woman soldier flew across my view. That’s what I saw. It was not on a bus. It was at a bus stop."
Reporters said the building adjacent to the blast was torn off and windows in shops, homes and a bus shattered over the sidewalk and street. Tel Aviv police Chief Yossi Sedbon told Army Radio that evidence suggested Palestinian militants planted the device, which went off during morning rush hour. "This was not a suicide bomber but a device planted next to the bus station in a bunch of weeds," Sedbon told Israel Radio.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the bombing was a consequence of the world court’s decision. "The murderous act this morning is the first that occurred to the credit of the decision of the world court at The Hague," Sharon was quoted as saying. "The decision sends a destructive message to encourage the terror and denounces countries that are defending themselves against it."
COUNCIL RESOLUTION?
Israeli officials have repeatedly said that the wall is not a plan to create apartheid, but the best way to protect the Jewish state against suicide attacks which they estimate have killed one thousand Israelis in recent years. The Palestinian Authority is seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution against the wall, although analysts say that the United States is likely to veto such a move.
United Nations Mideast Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, in New York to discuss the aftermath of the court decision, condemned the attack "in the strongest terms," a spokeswoman said, according to AP. "He urges the Palestinian Authority (news – web sites) to deploy all its efforts to put an end to terror."
Yet in Bangkok, Thailand his boss, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, urged Israel to respect international law and "the interests of the Palestinians."
"I think the decision of the court is clear," Annan said Sunday while attending the International AIDS (news – web sites) Conference. "Whilst we all accept the government of Israel has a responsibility, and indeed the duty to protect its citizens, any action it takes has to be in conformity with international law."
