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Israel says talks will continue despite attack

Israel will not break off peace talks because of a Palestinian attack in Jerusalem on Thursday night that killed eight students studying in the library of a rabbinical seminary, an Israeli official said yesterday.

Israel will push ahead with talks "so as not to punish moderate Palestinians for actions by people who are not just our enemies but theirs as well," the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government had yet to make an official announcement.

Yesterday, thousands of Israelis gathered outside the bullet-scarred seminary to begin funeral processions for the students. A rabbi recited Hebrew psalms line by line, the crowd repeating after him, in memory of the dead students, one of them 26 years old and the rest teenagers.

The seminary's library was crowded for a nighttime study session when the Palestinian opened fire. Students scrambled to flee the attack, jumping out of windows, and holy books drenched in blood littered the floor. It was the first major attack in Jerusalem in four years and the deadliest incident in Israel since a suicide bomber killed 11 people in Tel Aviv on April 17, 2006.

After the attack on the seminary, students gathered outside the library and screamed for revenge, shouting, ``Death to Arabs,'' while in Hamas-controlled Gaza thousands of jubilant Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate.

The attacker was Alaa Abu Dheim, a 25-year-old from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, said his family, who set up a mourning tent outside their home and hung green Hamas flags along with one yellow flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

His family said several relatives had been taken for questioning by Israeli police. They described him as quiet and intensely religious, but said he was not a member of a militant group and had planned to get married in the summer.

"We are proud and happy, and everyone in Jabel Mukaber is proud of him," said a cousin, who identified herself as Umm Fadi.

Israeli police confirmed the attacker was from Jabel Mukaber in east Jerusalem, where Palestinian residents hold Israeli ID cards that give them freedom of movement in Israel, and had worked as a driver. Several residents of Jabel Mukaber said Abu Dheim had been a driver at the seminary he attacked, but neither his relatives nor police would confirm that.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack while Hamas militants praised it in a statement, but stopped just short of claiming responsibility.

"We bless the operation. It will not be the last," Hamas said in a statement sent to reporters by text message.

The attacker walked through the seminary's main gate and entered the library, where witnesses said some 80 students were gathered. He carried an assault rifle and a pistol, and used both weapons in the attack, police said. Rescue workers said nine people were wounded, three seriously.

David Simchon, head of the seminary's high school, said the gunman was finally killed by a seminary graduate who is an army officer and lives nearby. The officer rushed into the seminary with his weapon and killed the gunman, he told Israel Radio.

The seminary, a prestigious center of Jewish studies, largely produced the ideology behind the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank and educated its leaders.
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