Two Israelis die in Gaza school bus bomb attack

Two Israelis die in Gaza school bus bomb attack
REUTERS

KFAR DAROM, GAZA STRIP, NOV 20: A bomb exploded in front of a Jewish settlers' school bus in the largely Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip on Monday, killing two adults and wounding nine others, including children.

Israel's security cabinet swiftly began an emergency meeting and the government and army vowed to respond to the first fatal bomb attack on settlers in Gaza in almost two months of clashes with Palestinians seeking independence.

Medical relief workers said at least four children were among the wounded. Witnesses said several pieces of shrapnel went clean through the bus packed with 50 people. The floor was stained with blood.

Jewish settlers identified one of the dead as 35-year-old Miri Amitai, a schoolteacher and mother of four, from the Kfar Darom settlement. Israel Radio

said the other dead Israeli was a man and both had been accompanying the children to school.

Dozens of Jewish settlers gathered around the bus to mourn and pray, saying they would not leave until Prime Minister Ehud Barak came to the scene.

Barak, who was due to visit Gaza later on Monday, expressed shock and the government vowed to "respond in accordance with developments". Government aide Gilead Sher and the army said the attack would not go unanswered.

"It's an inhumane attack," army spokesman Major Yarden Vatikay said.

The blast took the death toll to 243 in the clashes between Israeli troops and the Palestinians. Most of the dead have been Palestinians and one in four of them were teenagers.

The violence has shattered peacemaking in the region, and hopes of a peace agreement before US President Bill Clinton leaves office in January have receded.

The army blamed Monday's attack on Palestinian militants.

A radical Palestinian group based in Damascus said its Omaral-Mukhtar fighting units were responsible. It made the claim in a fax sent to Reuters in Beirut.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, an aide to President Yasser Arafat, said the Palestinian Authority was not involved in the bombing and rejected the violence.

He said Arafat had ordered a swift investigation into the blast, which took place on a road under Israeli control.

"It's the Israeli army's responsibility and they have to blame only themselves...We are in a self-defence position and we are asking the Israeli government to refrain from carrying out any acts of violence against the Palestinians," he said.

The army sealed off the area and Palestinian police said Israel had closed the Rafah crossing with Egypt after news of the bombing.

Vatikay said the bus had a military escort and was armour-plated, but the blast was strong enough to penetrate the armour. He said three people had activated the device with a wire before fleeing to a Palestinian-ruled area.

"I heard a strong explosion behind us, a cloud of smoke, and afterwards, when we saw the bus go on its way, we hoped there would be no casualties," said Asher Mivtzari, a Jewish witness from Kfar Darom.

"This reality cries to the heavens because this isn't the first bomb (in Gaza). We have had dozens of bombs in this area that only through a miracle didn't end in casualties."

A car bomb killed two Israelis in Jerusalem on November 2and a suicide bomber drove his bicycle into a wall near an army post in Gaza on October 26, slightly injuring a soldier. A Palestinian policeman killed an Israeli soldier and wounded two in a lone attack in Gaza on Saturday.