June 12, 2003

Suicide bomber kills 16 in Jerusalem. Hamas terrorist disguised as haredi

By Erik Schechter

Sixteen people were killed and more than 100 wounded when a Hamas suicide bomber, dressed as a haredi Jew, blew himself up on a bus in downtown Jerusalem on Wednesday. Many of those wounded were passersby outside the nearby Clal Building shopping center on Jaffa Road.

Only one victim's names had been released by press time: Sgt. Tamar Ben-Eliahu, 20, of Moshav Paran in the Arava.

Palestinian sources identified the terrorist as Muhammad Shabani, 20, from Hebron. He boarded the No. 14A bus outside the Clal Building at around 5:15 p.m. and waited briefly until the bus pulled out 20 meters from the stop before detonating a powerful bomb packed with bolts and screws.

An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that Shabani was part of the Kawasmeh gang in Hebron that was responsible for a number of attacks, including the May 18 bus bombing in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood which killed seven. In that case, the perpetrator was also dressed as a religious Jew.

On Jaffa Road, the remains of the bus - its front end blackened and twisted - were still smoldering a half-hour after the explosion. A faint smell of burning rubber hung in the air.

Hundreds of police officers and rescue workers swarmed the city's main thoroughfare, which was blocked by ambulances, jeeps, and police tape. Stunned onlookers peeked out of the shattered second-story windows of the shopping center.

Gershon Kletzkin, a 21-year-old Hatzolah ambulance volunteer, was one of the first paramedics to reach the scene.

'I was in a jewelry store close by and I heard the blast,' Kletzkin told The Jerusalem Post.

'When I turned around, I saw body parts flying through the air. There was total silence for half a minute, and then the screaming began.'

Kletzkin praised his fellow paramedics for their quick work: 'All the wounded were on their way to the hospital within five minutes.'

Performing a more grim task, haredi volunteers from Zaka (Disaster Victims Identification) took care of the dead, carrying away two bloodied bodies on stretchers.

Another Zaka worker pleaded with reporters to back off from the scene of the blast.

'There are pieces of bodies all over the place,' he shouted, pointing to a fistful of thick, black hair that had once been attached to someone's scalp.

Meanwhile, a small group of onlookers, lead by a bare- chested man swinging his black T-shirt in the air, shouted 'Death to the Arabs' and 'Revenge.'

Soon afterward, the mob encircled an Arab worker, who was soon rescued by three border policemen.

Officials were quick to dismiss the notion that the terror attack was revenge for Sunday's attempted assassination of Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz Rantisi in Gaza City.

'We don't see any overt connection between this and what happened yesterday in Gaza,' said Police spokesman Gil Kleiman.

'We have 50 to 60 general warnings [of suicide bombing attacks] at any one time. Besides, it takes a long time to organize an attack, gather intelligence, and infiltrate a suicide bomber into Israel.'

Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Mickey Levy added that, last year alone, 11 suicide bombers were apprehended on their way to Jerusalem.

Less than an hour after the Jerusalem bombing, IAF helicopter gunships fired missiles at a car in Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians.

Among those killed were Hamas terrorists Tito Massoud, 35, and Sohil Abu Nahel, 29. According to the IDF Spokesman, Massoud was a protege of Ibrahim Makadmeh (who was killed in an IAF missile attack in February) and was involved in the production and firing of Kassam rockets.

A bodyguard of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and agent of top bombmaker Muhammad Deif, Abu Nahel was involved in a series of attacks on Israeli buses in 1996.

The rest of those killed in the Gaza strike were civilians.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking at a Border Police ceremony at the Latrun Armored Corps Museum, condemned the Jerusalem attack as the killing of 'innocent citizens, whose only crime was that they were Jewish.'

While vowing to proceed with the road map, Sharon said that Israel would 'continue to relentlessly chase after Palestinian terrorist organizations and their leaders.'

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned the Hamas attack in Jerusalem. But government spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said, 'We are fed up with condemnations. We want unequivocal steps to stop terrorism, or we will do it ourselves.'

Rantisi - recovering in a hospital from Sunday's botched attempt on his life - promised that 'the Zionists will pay an expensive price for all of their crimes.'

In Memoriam

• Alan Beer, 47
• Tamar Ben-Eliahu, 20
• Eugenia Berman, 50
• Elsa Cohen, 70
• Zvi Cohen, 39
• Roi Eliraz, 22
• Alexander Kazaris, 77
• Miriam Levy, 74
• Yaffa Mualem, 65
• Yaniv Obayed, 22
• Bat-El Ohana, 21
• Anna Orgal, 55
• Zippora Pesahovitch, 54
• Bianca Rivkah Shahrur, 62
• Malka Renee Sultan, 67
• Bertine Tita, 75

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