Day of carnage
Bus bomber kills 17 in Jerusalem Israelis retaliate with Gaza airstrike
JERUSALEM - A suicide bomber detonated himself on a packed city bus yesterday evening, killing 17 people and injuring 112 in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in three years of Mideast violence.
An hour later, Israeli helicopters killed eight Palestinians in Gaza in a second straight day of missile attacks aimed at militant leaders. A second Israeli strike in Gaza early this morning killed two Palestinians and wounded five.
Hamas said the bus attack was in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt Tuesday on Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, whom Israel accuses of planning further terrorist attacks.
Today dawned with 27 people dead, both sides threatening further attacks and the Bush administration's "road map" toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians in tatters, just a week after Israeli and Palestinian leaders shook hands in Aqaba, Jordan, and pledged to work for peace.
Getting both sides back on the road is likely to require unprecedented restraint from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, an unprecedented crackdown on terrorism by new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and an unprecedented effort by Israel's Arab neighbors to cut off money to militant groups, including those affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
But no effort is likely to succeed without sustained pressure by the Bush administration - as a presidential election approaches - on all three parties: on the Palestinians to halt terrorism, on Israel to improve conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and dismantle some recent Jewish settlements, and on the Arabs to stop supporting terrorist groups.
"The Americans have to respond," said Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr. "There is no solution in violence, only diplomacy."
Bush makes pleaPresident Bush and other world leaders pleaded with Sharon and Abbas yesterday to stay the course for peace.
An Israeli helicopter strike soon after the suicide attack killed two members of the militant group Hamas and six others in Gaza."To the people in the world who want to see peace in the Middle East, I strongly urge all of you to fight off terror, to cut off money to organizations such as Hamas, to isolate those who hate so much that they're willing to kill to stop peace from going forward," Bush said. He called on all nations' leaders to use "every ounce of their power" to prevent terrorist attacks such as the one yesterday.
Even that may not be enough if the violence continues. As awful as it is, some Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and even some American politicians, may prefer the evil they know to the divisive political compromises that trying to reach a peace agreement would require.
Sharon vowed last night to "chase the terrorist groups and their leaders to their annihilation," signaling an apparent end to the restraint he promised Bush last week. Abbas, for his part, said earlier this week that he intended to negotiate with Hamas and other terrorist groups rather than tackle them.
The powerful suicide blast yesterday evening suggested that Hamas isn't interested in negotiating with Abbas, let alone with Sharon.
Tightly packed busThe bomb ignited an inferno on the standing-room-only Number 14 bus as it departed Jerusalem's bustling downtown Jewish market. Some victims survived the initial blast but were burned alive, rescue workers said, because the bus was so tightly packed that they couldn't be pried from it.
Scores of other victims were kept from crucial medical treatment when police discovered a second, unexploded bomb on the bus.
"Oh, my God, never in my life have I seen anything like this," said Virginia Arbeli, 24, a student from the Philippines who was crossing boutique-lined Jaffa Street to the bus when the explosion occurred.
"The driver was turning the wheel to get closer to the bus stop when all of a sudden 'boom.' It was deafening. I looked back at the driver, and I thought he was still alive. He was standing there like he was in shock. But then they pulled him over and he was dead his other side was on fire."
An hour later, a line of cars waiting in a traffic jam on a crowded thoroughfare in Gaza City was lifted off the ground by explosions when Israeli helicopters rained down missiles onto a car carrying two senior Hamas leaders. Tito Massaoud, 35, and Sufil Abu Nahaz, 29, were killed, Israeli officials said. Palestinians said six nearby motorists and bystanders also died and 25 were wounded.
Arafat seized on the day's tit-for-tat violence, calling for a cease-fire from both sides in his first televised address since peace negotiations restarted two months ago. Israelis and Palestinians warned that Arafat was trying to reassert himself after the United States and its allies have attempted to sideline him.
Arafat - whose al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades joined Hamas and Islamic Jihad in a terrorist attack earlier this week - denounced Wednesday's attacks and said they threatened to end the peace negotiations. "I call for an immediate halt of operations and shootings. The vicious cycle of terror on all sides must stop now," he said.
Hamas leader Rantisi rejected Arafat's call for a cease-fire. Attacks against Israelis will continue, Rantisi warned.
Arafat spoke yesterday after he and Abbas met with Egyptian official Omar Suleiman, who pressed Arafat to call on Hamas and Islamic Jihad to end the violence. Arafat declined to mention the militant groups by name, calling on "both sides" to stop attacks.