A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a powerful explosive Saturday in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 30. The attack targeted worshippers pouring into streets following sundown prayers at the end of the Jewish Sabbath.
The thunderous blast shook downtown Jerusalem and sent flames leaping into the air from a car that caught fire. Blood splattered the stone wall in front of the Mahane Israel seminary, where up to 1,000 Jews meet every Saturday evening. A 1-year-old child was among the dead.
Israel hinted it would retaliate.
"This has nothing to do with warfare, this has nothing to do with national liberation, this has to do with the murder of innocent Jews," said Israeli government spokesman Dore Gold. "The state of Israel knows how to defend the people of Israel, and will do so."
Palestinian militants had vowed to attack after Israel's military stormed into two West Bank refugee camps over the past three days. At least 23 Palestinians - including gunmen, policemen and civilians - have been killed in the camps since Thursday, and Israeli troops were continuing to search for militants and weapons in the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus in the West Bank.
Palestinian security sources said the Jerusalem bomber was Mohammed Daragmeh, 20, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is part of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. They said he came from the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The bomber entered the Mea Shearim neighborhood in west Jerusalem, "approached a group of people (and detonated) a large explosive on his body," said Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy.
Hundreds of Palestinians staged an impromptu celebration, chanting, "revenge, revenge," and firing guns into the air at the entrance to Dheisheh camp.
Arafat's administration denounced the bombing in a statement, but also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the "crimes against Palestinian civilians" in the refugee camps.
It said it holds "Sharon and his government responsible for the deterioration in the region, and any coming deterioration."
Shortly after the bombing, an Israeli policeman on a motorcycle was shot dead in a Jewish settlement just outside Jerusalem, police said. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade also claimed responsibility for that killing.
With sirens wailing, ambulances and police cars rushed to Mea Shearim, which lies just across a main road from Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.
"I came right out (on the street) and saw a car on fire, the building next to it was also on fire," said one witness, Yitzhak Weinberger, 22.
Firefighters hosed down a smoking car, and rescue workers rushed the wounded to hospitals following the blast, which took place shortly after sundown. The Jewish Sabbath runs from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
In addition to the attacker, at least nine people were killed, including a 1-year-old child, according to hospital officials and Levy. More than 30 people were injured, the officials said.
Scraps of flesh and clothes were scattered on the streets. Jewish volunteers picked up the small pieces of human remains to ensure a proper Jewish burial.
The neighborhood's ultra-Orthodox Jews, in blacks coats and hats, packed the street and looked on from the balconies of the old stone homes lining the road. Some chanted, "no Arabs, no terror attacks."
Meanwhile, Israel's army said it captured suspected Palestinian militants and uncovered rockets and explosives during three days of house-to-house searches in the densely packed Balata refugee camp, next to Nablus, in the West Bank, the army said Saturday.
Israeli soldiers pulled out of a second refugee camp Saturday, this one on the outskirts of Jenin, about 20 miles from Nablus. The troops and tanks moved to hilltops overlooking the camp and Jenin.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Israeli actions were "aimed at demolishing and destroying the two camps and making their residents refugees again." He ruled out any meetings in the near future between Israeli and Palestinian security officials, who held two acrimonious and fruitless sessions this past week.
While Palestinians put their dead at 23 in the two camps since Thursday, the Israeli army said about 30 Palestinian gunmen have been killed and some 200 wounded. It did not mention Palestinian civilian casualties.
Israeli Col. Aviv Kochavi, the commander of the paratroopers carrying out the operation in Balata, said troops seized seven Qassam rockets that were ready, or nearly ready for launch, and seven explosive belts, the kind often used by suicide bombers.
"I hope we've foiled seven suicide bombings with this discovery," Kochavi told reporters Saturday afternoon, several hours before the attack in Jerusalem.
Kochavi said militants had been arrested, but he declined to give any figures.
Palestinians say most militants managed to escape. Some Israeli military commentators have questioned whether any key Palestinian militants have been detained, and also raised doubts about whether the operation will improve Israel's security.
Israeli officials said they undertook the action because the camps had become strongholds for militants.
The raids mark the first time the army has sent ground troops into refugee camps during the 17 months of Mideast fighting. Israel had been reluctant to enter the camps, where it is difficult or impossible for its tanks and other armored vehicles to move in the narrow, congested streets.
In Nablus, members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said they executed a Palestinian after he allegedly confessed to helping the Israeli military track down militants.
In the northern Gaza Strip, a 27-year-old Palestinian attempting to plant a bomb was shot and killed by Israeli forces early Saturday. The Israeli army and the militant Islamic group Hamas both said afterward that the man was trying to attack Israelis.
(China Daily March 3, 2002)
