There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast that killed at least 11 people in west Jerusalem, but a Gaza-based leader of the radical Islamic group Hamas said the grisly attacks would go on.
”There is no reason to stop them,” Abdul Aziz Rantissi told Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV channel.
”Such operations must go on,” he said, without claiming any responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing.
At least 10 people were killed and 45 injured as a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up aboard a rush-hour bus in west Jerusalem.
”The vast majority of the Palestinian people support such attacks,” Rantissi said in a telephone interview from Gaza City.
”Resistance is the only path to liberation. The Palestinian people is not alone in being murdered … Any Zionist criminal has to be killed,” Rantissi said.
National police chief Shlomo Ahronishki said the blast was a suicide bomb attack by a Palestinian extremist that happened as the bus was travelling through the Kiryat Menacham sector of Jewish west Jerusalem.
The toll of 10 dead did not include the suicide bomber, Israeli public radio said.
It was the first deadly bombing in the city since July 31, when an operative of a Palestinian radical Islamic group killed 10 people, including four Americans, at the Hebrew University.
”This bombing of a bus in Jerusalem was carried out to kill and maim people. There are constantly bomb alerts and we are questioning the vehicle’s driver to try to determine how the bombing was carried out,” said local police commander Miky Levy.
The bomb ripped through the early morning commuter bus on the southwestern edge of the disputed holy city at about 7.15am.
Ahronishki said a major explosive charge went off at the front of the bus, indicating the Palestinian suicide bomber had just entered the vehicle when he detonated his bomb.
The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital. Some were said to be in grave condition.
An official with Magen David Adom, the equivalent of the Red Cross, said: ”It was a major blast,” adding that women and children were among the victims.
A witness said on radio that the vehicle was set ablaze. The front of bus number 20 was charred by the flames.
Meir Ohayon, a resident of the area, blamed the Israeli government for its repeated failure to stem the flow of suicide bombers and gunmen into the Jewish state.
”I’m very angry with the Israeli government, which has been unable to protect its citizens.
”I’ll vote for the party [that] supports separation and dialogue” with the Palestinians, he said, a day after the Labour Party elected as its leader Haifa mayor Amram Mitzna, who advocates both in his manifesto for January elections.
”I’ve lived in this neighbourhood for 42 years and I’m waiting to see how many of my friends are dead,” added Ohayon gloomily, standing near the wreck of the bus on Mexico Street.
Israel said the latest attack blocked further talks on a United States-backed international peace ”roadmap”.
In a swift military reaction, several Israeli jeeps and a tank moved into the Palestinian town of Bethlehem.
The attack came a day after Israel’s national bus company, Egged, said it is suing Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority for $11-million in damages over its alleged role in suicide bombings and shooting attacks on its vehicles.
There have been about 51 attacks against Israeli buses during the 26 months of the intifada, which have claimed the lives of at least 133 people and wounded nearly 600, according to an Agence France Presse toll.
The figures do not include people killed or injured while waiting at bus stops. — Sapa-AFP