A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus packed with schoolchildren and office workers during morning rush hour yesterday, killing 19 people and wounding more than 50, police said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to fight "Palestinian terror" as he surveyed the damage caused by the attack, which could undercut US President George W. Bush's plan this week to lay out a framework for Middle East peace.
The blast lifted bus number 32 off the ground and reduced it to charred wreckage, shortly after the US and Yasser Arafat criticized Israel's plans to build a security fence at its West Bank frontier through which attackers slip into Israel.
The scream of sirens could not drown out the moans of wounded lying in pools of blood. Police said several teenagers were among the dead and children were among the injured.
"People were flying in the air and there was blood everywhere," said Yakir Barashi, 14, who had just stepped off another bus in south Jerusalem. "I'm afraid to go on a bus, to go to school. I saw one kid with nails cutting into his entire body."
Shalom Sabag was driving in front of the bus at the time of the blast, the latest in a series of suicide bombings in a 20-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. He rushed to help pull out the dead and wounded.
"Bodies were piled up near the door of the bus," he said. "I took off the bodies of two girls and a man. There was one girl I cannot forget. She had a long braid down her back and she lay on her stomach."
The bus driver sat dead in his seat, his hands still on the steering wheel. Blood dripped down the steps of the rear door.
Police had been on alert because of intelligence reports warning of bombers in the area, but they failed to catch the man who blew himself up with a bomb packed with nails and shrapnel.
Sharon came quickly to the scene where, against the backdrop of body bags lined up side-by-side on the pavement, he declared his opposition to any idea of declaring a Palestinian state soon.
"The terrible pictures we see here are stronger then every word," Sharon said. "It's interesting to speculate what kind of Palestinian state they want ... What are they talking about?"
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Israeli officials swiftly pointed the finger of blame.
The Palestinian Authority denounced the bombing, denied the accusations that it was to blame and pledged to hunt down those responsible, saying such attacks harmed the nationalist cause.
But the Authority called on the US and the world community to force Israel to stop attacks on Palestinian-ruled areas which it said hindered its security forces' operations.
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