20 dead, including 6 children, in Jerusalem terror bus bomb
By Etgar Lefkovits
A Palestinian suicide bomber boarded a packed Jerusalem bus making its way from the Western Wall to Har Nof Tuesday night and blew himself up, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 100 others, a dozen seriously, in one of the deadliest bombings in the past three years of violence.
Six children were among the dead, rescue workers said, and scores of other youngsters were wounded in the bus blast.
The attack on the No. 2 bus line was the 101st Palestinian suicide bombing in the past 35 months of violence, and came one week after back-to-back bombings in Rosh Ha'ayin and Ariel.
The bombing took place just as Israel was set to withdraw from four Palestinian cities in the West Bank as part of a weekend agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
In a first response, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon froze all contacts with the PA late Tuesday night, and the security cabinet was to meet Wednesday to decide on further, more serious, measures in response to the attack.
Initially, the Islamic Jihad took credit for the attack, and asserted it was in revenge for the death of Muhammad Sider, the Hebron leader killed by the IDF last week in a shoot-out. But later in the evening, the 29-year-old bomber was identified as a Hamas member, Raed Abdel-Hamed Mesk from Hebron.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who was meeting with Islamic Jihad officials at the time of the blast, condemned the bombing, calling it a "terrible act which cannot serve the interests of the Palestinian people."
The bomber, wearing what police said was "a large" amount of explosives on his back, likely boarded the bus at the Western Wall, security officials said, blending in with the scores of other passengers making their way home on a cool summer Jerusalem evening.
The blast ripped through the double-length bus just as it turned off Rt. 1, the city's main north-south road, near the Novotel Hotel, in Jerusalem's haredi Beit Shmuel neighborhood. Another Egged bus had just passed it when the suicide bomber set off his explosive charges, which police said were packed with bolts and nails in an effort to create maximum casualties.
The force of the blast tore apart the accordion bus, sending pieces of metal and bloodied body parts flying across the street. Police were forced to use blowtorches to remove the wounded from the bus.
Distraught survivors, including several crying children with blood-smeared faces, were led away from the scene by paramedics, as ambulances rushed the wounded to all four Jerusalem city hospitals. "Everything became black. I found myself lying on the floor of the bus," recalled a bus passenger, who gave only his first name, Yehoshua, as he was taken to Bikur Holim Hospital.
Over the next hour, half a dozen ambulances arrived at the hospital. Hospital deputy spokesman Shamay Shazeri reported 17 incoming wounded, including four babies.
One of them was US citizen Steve Weiss of Brooklyn, who was lightly wounded and jumped out the window of the bus when the explosion happened. Jerusalem Police chief Cmdr. Mickey Levy said that there were no specific alerts for an attack in Jerusalem, other than the general alerts that were in place for the remainder of the country.
Israel Police Insp.-Gen. Shlomo Aharonishky announced Tuesday night that police were going on high alert in the wake of the bombing, but reiterated that it was impossible to thwart all attacks.
The bus blast caught many religious families making their way home from evening prayer at the Western Wall.
At Jerusalem's Hadassah-University Hospital at Ein Kerem, officials were seeking the parents of a month-old infant. Hospital officials said it was one of the worst attacks ever in terms of the number of youngsters, children, and toddlers wounded.
The last Jerusalem bombing occurred just over two months ago, when 17 people were killed on another city bus.
Erik Schechter contributed to this report.
Sept 7, 2003
22nd victim of Jerusalem bus bombing dies
By Etgar Lefkovits
The death toll from last month's Jerusalem bus bombing rose to 22 Friday, when 27-year-old Mordechai Laufer succumbed to his wounds after a two-week struggle for life.
Laufer, who was buried in Netanya on Friday, had been ordained as a rabbi last summer, and studied at the coastal city's Sanz Yeshiva.
Six of the fatalities in the August 19 Hamas bombing - the deadliest attack in Jerusalem in the last three years of Palestinian violence - were children, while five of those killed were American citizens.
