A bomb tore apart a packed bus in northern Israel during the morning rush hour on Sunday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than two dozen, police sources and doctors said.
The blast occurred at the Meron Junction, which is between the towns of Acre and Tsfat, about 60 kilometres northwest of the West Bank. The civilian bus was carrying a number of soldiers returning to their bases on Sunday, the beginning of the work week in Israel, officials said.
The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement received in Lebanon by Hezbollah’s television station, Al-Manar. According to Al-Manar, Hamas said a suicide bomber had detonated the bomb as a second stage of retaliation for the death of Hamas’ military leader, Salah Shehadeh, killed along with 14 other people in an Israeli bombing of Gaza last month.
Hamas claimed responsibility for a bombing of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University last Wednesday that killed seven people, five of them Americans.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 10 people were confirmed dead, including a number of soldiers. At least 37 people were injured, two critically, said David Peretz, head of the emergency ambulance service Magen David Adom in northern Israel.
”I picked up four dead myself,” Haim Ben-Shimon, a civilian who was nearby at the time of the blast, told Army Radio. ”The bus is simply crushed. It looks as if the explosion happened in the centre of the bus.”
Another witness, Pinhas Cohen, said: ”A soldier came out with his face and uniform covered with blood, and two Arabs from the nearby restaurant gave him first aid.”
The bus’ windows were completely blown out and part of its roof and side were splayed open by the force of the blast, with debris scattered all around the area.
Soldiers in flak vests and medical crews swarmed the scene as ambulances took away the injured.
Television footage from nearby hospitals showed several of the injured wearing green army uniforms.
Dr Oscar Enbon, director of the Ziv Hospital in Tsfat, said 26 wounded people had reached the hospital, including nine in serious condition. Many were suffering from burns, he said.
”On Sunday morning, the passengers are regulars. Unfortunately, many of them are soldiers on their way to bases in the north,” said Ron Atner, a representative for the Egged bus company.
Security is very tight in the area, with a number of checkpoints, Atner said, but it appeared likely that the bomber was able to board at one of the many stops the bus made.
Israel said the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, bore ultimate responsibility for the bombing.
”This attack on an Israeli civilian bus is another prime example of how the Palestinian Authority feeds on terror,” said David Baker, an official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
”This Palestinian terror must be uprooted and Israel will not relent in its pursuit of, and war against, Palestinian terror,” he said.
Palestinian groups have carried out scores of bombing and shooting attacks throughout the 22 months of fighting. – Sapa-AP