40 Hurt in Bomb Attacks Near Israel’s Wailing Wall : Grenades Tossed at Soldiers

JERUSALEM â€”  Hand grenades were thrown tonight at a crowd of Israeli soldiers and their parents near Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, causing at least 40 casualties in the most serious attack in the city in 2 1/2 years.

Reports on police radio monitored by the Visnews television agency said an undisclosed number of people were killed in the apparent Arab guerrilla attack.

Mayor Teddy Kollek called the bombing “a large-scale disaster.�

The grenades were thrown as new recruits from the crack Givati Infantry Brigade and their parents were boarding buses at Dung Gate after attending a military swearing-in ceremony at the Wailing Wall, police and witnesses said.

Military Ceremony

A military spokesman said the soldiers had just finished their basic training and were returning to a parking lot after being handed guns and religious books at the flood-lit ceremony.

The bloodstained area resembled a war zone as armed security personnel cordoned off Dung Gate and searched for the attackers.

Palestinian residents of Arab east Jerusalem said Israeli forces clamped an immediate curfew on the Old City and made many arrests.

An Arab shopkeeper was covered with the blood of the wounded he helped carry to private cars and ambulances that ferried them to nearby hospitals. He said his 12-year-old nephew was wounded in the attack.

Police in Old City

Israeli television, which broke into the regular programming, said most of the injured were taken to Hadassah Hospital, and police were scouring the Old City area.

“It sounded like two sonic booms and we saw a big flash near Dung Gate,� said Anat Laytner, whose apartment overlooks the walled Old City.

Dung Gate is adjacent to the Wailing Wall, also known as the Western Wall, an outer wall of the biblical Jewish Temple.

Laytner said ambulances and police cars rushed to the scene. Police spokesmen said there were several casualties, but police radio reports monitored by the Visnews television agency spoke of dozens of wounded.

The Wailing Wall is a traditional place of pilgrimage for Jews from all over the world, especially during the current holiday season between Yom Kippur, the Jewish New Year, and this weekend’s Succoth holiday.

Bypasses Arab Alleyways

It also attracts many tourists.

Jewish worshipers use Dung Gate to bypass the winding Arab market alleyways leading to the Wall.

Muslims also pass through the gate on their way to the Temple Mount, now the site of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques, Islam’s holiest shrines in Jerusalem.

Security personnel inspect personal belongings at booths situated a short distance from the Wailing Wall compound, but there is no check at Dung Gate itself.

Police have warned Israelis to be on alert during the current holiday season for guerrilla attacks.