Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 10 on Jerusalem Bus

JERUSALEM â€”  A Palestinian suicide bomber blew apart a commuter bus carrying children to school at the height of rush hour this morning, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens more, police said.

Ambulances careened to the working-class Kiryat Menahem neighborhood in southern Jerusalem where the crowded bus exploded. At least 40 wounded people were taken to three hospitals. Seven of those were in serious to critical condition, Dr. Shmuel Shapira of Hadassah Hospital in suburban Ein Kerem told Israeli radio.

“I just saw burnt flesh, blackened people, everyone screaming and moaning,� said Janet Gino, a teacher from the coastal city of Haifa. She was walking near the site when she heard the explosion and ran toward the bus.

Children’s notebooks and backpacks were scattered inside the shattered bus. Hysterical parents rushed to the scene to look for their children but were being kept back by police.

“It’s rush hour before school, so kids were on their way to classes,� officer Ofer Sivan said.

Bus No. 20 was en route downtown and blew up on Mexico Street. Jerusalem Police Chief Mickey Levy said a Palestinian suicide bomber boarded the bus a short time before detonating the bomb, blowing out windows, buckling the roof and hurling people and body parts for yards.

“The bus was full,� Levy said.

Authorities said 10 people were killed, in addition to the bomber.

Most of the damage was at the front of the bus, which was badly charred. Bloodied passengers staggered in the streets, which were littered with shards of glass, before being whisked away by dozens of emergency crews that sprang into well-practiced action.

Other rescue workers and forensic specialists combed through the remains of the green-and-white bus, placing black plastic bags along the window frames to shield the carnage from public view.

Cars parked nearby were also damaged by the powerful blast.

Police Supt. Gil Kleiman, briefing reporters at the scene, said the bomber had made his way to the middle of the bus.

“It was 7:15 in the morning. Israel’s workday starts early, so everyone is traveling to work and school,� he said as a small crowd of protesters chanted, “Death to Arabs!�

Uzi Landau, Israel’s hawkish minister for public security, also arrived at the scene. “We are too lenient with the Palestinians,� Landau said. “It’s a war. We have to do much more than what we are doing to stop this.�

The attack was the first suicide bombing since Nov. 4, when two immigrants from Argentina -- a security guard and a 15-year-old boy -- were killed at a shopping mall in the town of Kfar Saba in central Israel. The last bus bombing was Oct. 21, when the bomber rammed a car full of explosives into a bus in northern Israel, killing 14.

In Jerusalem, however, there had not been a suicide bombing in nearly four months.

The last killed nine people, including five Americans, in a cafeteria at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. Security has been extremely tight in the city ever since, and some residents had dared to hope that phase of the war was over.

Today’s bombing comes as Israelis focus on a national election campaign to choose a prime minister and legislature.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faces a formidable challenge from within his Likud Party from hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu, who advocates tougher action against the Palestinians to fight terrorism. This latest attack will certainly inflame campaign rhetoric.

The Israeli army has reoccupied most Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank to try to halt the bombings that have been the Palestinians’ weapon of choice in 26 months of fighting. Netanyahu and others on the right are demanding that the government expel Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

The government immediately blamed Arafat for the attack, although no specific group initially claimed responsibility. Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, at the scene, branded the attack a “savage act.�

Egged, the national bus company, had just announced that it was suing the Palestinian Authority for damages to its buses, which are frequent targets of bombers and gunmen. Egged is demanding about $1.2 million for damage in the year 2001 alone.

Earlier today, dozens of Israeli tanks entered three villages in the southern Gaza Strip, residents said, and destroyed the house of a suspected militant. Doctors at a clinic said four people were moderately wounded.

On Wednesday, a Palestinian teenager was killed and at least four others were wounded in Tulkarm as the Israeli military continued operations in the West Bank.