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West Bank City Closed Off After Blasts
By the Associated Press for the New York Times
September 1, 2004
Jerusalem (AP) -- Israeli troops closed off a West Bank city and Palestinian militants celebrated after Hamas blew up two buses, seconds apart, in the desert town of Beersheba, killing 16 Israelis and ending a months-long lull in suicide attacks.
The twin bombings shattered hopes in Israel that the period of suicide attacks -- more than 100 in four years -- was over. ``The nightmare is back,'' read the main headline in the Yediot Ahronot daily Wednesday, above a photo of a burning bus.
The last suicide attack was in March, and many Israelis believed the militants had been defeated, or at least suffered a serious blow. Israeli leaders had boasted of increasingly effective means to fight bombers, including an expanding West Bank separation barrier, a large network of Palestinian informers and mass arrests.
Tuesday's bombers came from the West Bank city of Hebron, about 15 miles north of Beersheba. Ahmed Kawasmeh, 26, and Nassim Jabari, 22, had known each other for years and were members of a secretive Hamas cell led by Kawasmeh's cousin, Imad, a top fugitive.
The Kawasmeh clan is one of the largest in Hebron, and had dispatched five suicide bombers in recent years. Israeli troops destroyed Ahmed Kawasmeh's family apartment, arrested three of his brothers and sealed off Hebron.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon consulted with his defense minister and army commanders late Tuesday, and decided to step up military raids in Hebron, including targeted killings of militants, security sources said. However, no massive military operation is planned, the sources said.
Sharon also said he is determined to go ahead with a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements next year. ``This (the attack) has no connection to disengagement,'' he said, referring to his program.
Beersheba, a quiet city of 200,000 in Israel's Negev Desert, became a target of Palestinian suicide bombers for the first time -- a fact Israelis used to show that their contentious separation barrier is working where it is completed and sorely needed where it is not -- between Beersheba and Hebron.
The bombings went off just seconds apart on the No. 6 and No. 12 buses, on opposite sides of a busy intersection. The buses lay stricken in the street, their windows blown out, roofs buckled outward, interiors gutted by flames.
Forensic workers picked up body parts, including a woman's severed hand with a silver ring.
Nissim Vaknin, a passenger on the No. 6 bus, said he was sitting behind the driver, next to a man he later realized was the bomber. Vaknin described the bomber as a ``young guy, quiet, not tense.'' When an elderly woman with shopping bags boarded, Vaknin gave up his seat to her and walked to the back, a gesture that saved his life. The elderly woman was killed in the blast several seconds later.
A 3-year-old boy was also among the victims. More than 80 people were wounded, including 19 school-age children.
Hamas said the attack was retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, earlier this year.
In Gaza, thousands of Hamas supporters celebrated in the streets, with Rantisi's widow, Rasha, calling the attack ``heroic'' and saying her husband's soul is ``happy in heaven.'' She threw candies to the cheering crowd around her house.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said in a statement that ``the Palestinian interest requires a stop to harming all civilians so as not give Israel pretext to continue its aggression against our people.''
The U.S. State Department brushed aside Arafat's comments and said Hamas must be put out of business.
The delayed Hamas response -- Yassin was killed in March and Rantisi in April -- was a sign of the group's increasing difficulties in carrying out attacks.
Israel said the lull of the past few months resulted from the completion of the northern section of the separation barrier, keeping bombers away from their favorite targets -- Israeli cities just a few miles from the West Bank.
Also, the military said it foiled dozens of suicide bomb plots, arrested hundreds of terror suspects and crippled the Hamas leadership with assassinations of Yassin and Rantisi.
Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri agreed. ``But now, the military operations (attacks) are a way for Hamas to increase its popularity among Palestinians,'' he said.
Tuesday's attack was the deadliest since a female suicide bomber killed 21 people on Oct. 4, 2003, in the northern city of Haifa.
The last suicide bombing in Israel was on March 14, when two Palestinian attackers killed 11 Israelis in the southern port of Ashdod. Since then, 338 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, have been killed by Israeli troops.
In the same period, 29 Israelis were killed, including soldiers who died in attacks in Gaza and Israeli motorists shot dead by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israelis pointed to the barrier as the main factor in stopping attacks in Israel. Beersheba residents clamored for completion of the barrier around the West Bank's southern end to protect them.
Israeli officials agreed. ``We should go ahead speedily now and finish construction of this fence,'' said government spokesman Avi Pazner.
The barrier has been widely condemned internationally because of the hardships it imposes on Palestinians. Completion has been held up by Israel's own Supreme Court, ordering route changes to ease up on the Palestinians.
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