A suicide bomber murdered eight people on a rush hour bus in Jerusalem on Sunday, underlining the bitter arguments around the opening of an international court of justice hearing on the legality of Israel’s vast ”anti-terror fence”.
The Al-Aqsa martyrs brigade, a faction of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, said it launched the attack in retaliation for the Israeli army’s killing of 15 Palestinians in the Gaza strip two weeks ago.
But the group said in a statement that the bombing by a 23 year-old man from near Bethlehem, Mohammed Za’el, was also a warning that the controversial barrier is ”a Nazi wall which will not stop us attacking”.
The suicide bomber struck shortly after 8.30am on the first day of the working week in Israel. The dead included two teenage students, Lior Azulai and Bnayahu Zuckerman.
About 60 people were wounded, including Zahava Nevies, a 34 year-old dentist and mother of four, who was sitting toward the back of the packed bus when the explosive detonated.
”I went into shock. I saw a shoe, a leg, a lot of blood. I heard screaming and then I realised the screams were coming from my own mouth,” she said. ”I can’t hear out of one ear, but I feel lucky. My first thought was, ‘I’m alive. I’ll still be able to hug my kids’.”
Nir Barkat, a Jerusalem city councillor, was stopped at a traffic light next to the bus when shards of glass and clumps of flesh were thrown across the street.
”It was terrible. There were hands and legs and body parts everywhere,” he said. ”I ran up to the bus and tried to help people get out. I had to step over bodies. People were crying for help. Some were unconscious and some were dying. I tried to stop them bleeding with my fingers.”
Israel’s foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, said the attack demonstrated the need for the ”anti-terror fence” which his government says is a purely defensive measure designed to block Palestinian bombers.
”This attack proves just how urgent it is to build the fence. It is a clear preventive measure … We will continue building it because it saves lives,” he said.
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, issued a statement calling for ”an immediate halt to these actions” which he said gave Israel an excuse to continue building the barrier.
Israel is boycotting the court hearing at The Hague on Monday because it says the international court of justice does not have jurisdiction in a ”political case” and that it does not want to legitimise a verdict it is sure will go against the barrier.
However, Israel on Sunday began dismantling an 8km section of fence that enclosed the West Bank town of Baqa al-Sharqia because government lawyers advised that its route could not be defended in the Israeli courts. Palestinian sources say their lawyers intend to tell the international court that security considerations are merely a cover for Israel to use the steel and concrete barrier to expropriate land in breach of international law and causing great harm to civilians.
An influential body of opinion backs the Palestinian view.
The International Red Cross says the barrier is illegal under the Geneva conventions and international humanitarian law.
Amnesty International says the barrier ”is contributing to grave human rights violations”.
Although the international court’s verdict is non-binding, the Palestinians hope it will pressure the UN security council and other international bodies to demand that the barrier is dismantled or moved to the 1967 border. However, Israel is counting on the United States to veto any such move.
Although Israel is boycotting the hearing, it is making its case on the streets outside by flying the victims of Palestinian attacks to the Hague along with a bus destroyed in a bombing last month.
Among those planning to travel is Barkat, whose hands and shoes were still covered in blood, as he spoke on Sunday.
”The world does not put life before quality of life. The world has got to recognise that Israel has to protect itself. We recognise the fence causes problems; let’s see how we can ease the pain. But we have to stop this kind of bombing. It was a massacre,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â