Suicide bomber kills eight in Israel

Suicide bomber kills eight in Israel

AFULA, Israel (Reuter): A suicide car bomber believed to be from the militant Islamic group Hamas killed at least eight people and wounded 50 at a bus stop in the northern Israeli town of Afula yesterday.

Police said the car bomb exploded as a bus stopped to pick up passengers in the heart of this working class town near the northern edge of the occupied West Bank.

Police and hospitals said at least eight people were dead and 50 injured.

Hamas said it carried out the attack to avenge the massacre of some 30 Arabs by a Jewish settler in a Hebron mosque on Feb. 25.

A caller to a Western news agency said Hamas used 175 kg (385 lb) of explosive.

The caller named the suicide bomber as Raed Zakarneh, 19, of Qabatyeh in the occupied West Bank. Police had no immediate comment on the Hamas claim.

Northern region police chief Yaakov Granot said preliminary reports suggested the blast was a suicide attack. It came one day after the end of a 40-day Moslem mourning period for the Hebron victims.

"I am sorry to say that eight people were killed," Granot told Israel Radio. He said the driver of the explosives-laden car was among the dead.

"Bodies were strewn in the street, on fences, on trees. There were dead with their legs and heads blown off," a fire fighter said. The car's steering wheel was found some 30 meters (100 feet) from the bus stop where the vehicle exploded.

Peace deal

The explosion coincided with talks in Cairo between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on implementing their peace deal. Environment Minister Yossi Sarid, who has negotiated with the PLO in previous rounds, said the peace process would not be affected by the attack.

"Why stop, so that terror will increase, spread and be threatened," he told Army Radio. "If the peace process is stopped, we are placing our fate in the hands of...these suicide bombers -- and that is their wish."

The anonymous caller said Hamas' military wing, the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, carried out the attack. He warned Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of more suicide bombings.

"(We) claim responsibility for the suicide operation in the town of Afula which killed eight people. We tell Rabin that suicide operations in the coming period will increase."

Israelis shouting "Death to the Arabs" gathered near the scene. A hysterical woman screamed and beat her head in grief near the damaged red-and-white bus.

Police rushed reinforcements to nearby Arab villages to protect residents from possible attacks by enraged Jews. Afula is 10 km (six miles) from the West Bank and near Israeli Arab villages in the Galilee.

Since Israel and the PLO signed a peace deal in September, 40 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians and 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis.

Israel had been expecting Palestinian reprisals since Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein carried out the slaughter in the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Hamas had vowed to avenge the Hebron killings by attacking Jewish settlers in the territories.

"It has been about 40 days since the massacre...and the security forces have been on heightened alert all the time for reprisals," Police Minister Moshe Shahal said.

"This incident is a terrorist attack, according to what we have determined from preliminary findings. It was an explosion by a booby-trapped car," he told reporters on arrival in Afula.

Since the massacre, Palestinians in the occupied territories have been banned from Israel except for a few with special permits.

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