Prime Minister Ariel Sharon swore to hunt Palestinian militants "to the bitter end" and Israeli helicopters rocketed a car carrying Hamas activists in Gaza early yesterday, the latest in an attack-revenge cycle that killed 27 Israelis and Palestinians and wounded more than 100 in a less than a day.
The spike in violence -- a Hamas bus bombing in Jerusalem and two Israeli air strikes -- came just a week after US President George W. Bush launched a Mideast peace plan at a festive summit. Difficulties in implementing the "road map" plan had been expected, but many were surprised by such a rapid return to bloodshed.
There have been deadlier days in 32 months of fighting, but despair was perhaps more keenly felt than after previous setbacks because there had been hope of a new beginning and personal involvement by Bush after last week's summit.
"Bush, too, cannot compel Hamas to stop terror," Israeli commentator Sever Plotzker wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily. "And the all-powerful Bush cannot compel Sharon to stop the assassinations [of Palestinian militants]. The cause and effect, the effect and cause, it's all jumbled. Who remembers who started?"
Bush angrily condemned the bus bombing and urged all nations to cut off financial assistance to terrorists and "isolate those who hate so much that they are willing to kill." Earlier, Bush had rebuked Sharon for the attempted killing of a Hamas founder, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, which led to threats of revenge by the group.
The first retaliation for the botched attack on Rantisi came Wednesday afternoon, during evening rush hour on Jaffa Street, Jerusalem's main thoroughfare. An 18-year-old high school student from Hebron, Abdel Madi Shabneh, disguised himself as an ultra-Orthodox Jew and boarded city bus No. 14 just after it left the nearby central bus station.
Shabneh detonated the explosives strapped to his body just as the bus reached Mahane Yehuda, the city's large outdoor market. The blast lifted the bus off the pavement, then tore up the roof and sides. Several passengers were hurled outside.
The bomber killed 16 people, including Alan Beer, 47, who immigrated to Israel from Cleveland, Ohio, several years ago. More than 100 people were hurt.
Less than an hour later, Israeli helicopters targeted two members of the Hamas military wing as they drove in the crowded market area of a Gaza City neighborhood. The two were killed in a ball of fire, and witnesses said more missiles were fired as hundreds of bystanders ringed the burning vehicle. Six more people were killed and 35 wounded by the second volley. Early yesterday, an Israeli rocket attack killed two low-level Hamas activists in Gaza City.
Sharon declared that though he is committed to negotiating a peace deal, his army would pursue violent Palestinian groups "to the bitter end."
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with army commanders, and radio reports said Israel would target the infrastructure of Hamas. In 32 months of fighting, the Israeli military had mainly attacked Palestinian security forces, even though Hamas was responsible for a majority of the bombings and shootings.
In responding to US criticism to the attempt on Rantisi's life, Sharon has said that despite his commitment to the peace plan, he never promised Washington to halt his campaign against militants.
However, the Israeli strikes make it increasingly difficult for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas and other militant groups. Abbas' position has been shaky from the start and has been further undermined by Israel's renewed campaign against militants. At the same time, Hamas rebuffed Abbas' initial truce proposal even before the attack on Rantisi.
Palestinian officials have said Bush had backed the Palestinians' proposal to try to persuade Hamas to lay down arms, instead of using force against the group.
The road map asks Israel to refrain from all actions that could undermine trust, but does not specifically veto targeted killings of suspected militants and Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, shunted aside in recent weeks in a US peace effort, moved back to center stage, summoning reporters and reading a tough statement calling on all Palestinian factions to cease fire.
Abbas also issued a statement, appealing for "a full commitment from all parties to a ceasefire, to stop violence and to immediately move into a serious implementation of road map."
The bus bombing in Jerusalem went off sometime after 5pm, outside the Mahane Yehuda market. Many of the wounded were pedestrians hit by flying debris.
Among those hurt was Sarri Singer, 30, a daughter of New Jersey State Senator Robert Singer, who said she had just taken a seat on the packed bus when the explosion ripped through it.
"It was ... a very strong blast and the next thing I know people are pulling me out of the bus," she told Israel Radio. "I have a fracture in my shoulder, other than that, thank God, I'm happy to be alive."
The driver of the bus, a Palestinian from east Jerusalem, was slightly injured.
"Bombs don't distinguish between Arabs or Jews," he told Haaretz newspaper.
Natan Sharansky, Israel's minister for Jerusalem affairs, said the No. 14 runs through the Jerusalem neighborhood where he lives with his family.
"My daughter rides that bus, so immediately you start checking where your family is and getting irritated because one doesn't know where the other is and none of the phones work," he said.
Less than an hour after the bus bombing, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car in Gaza City, killing two senior Hamas operatives, Tito Massoud, 35, and Soheil Abu Nahel, 29.
"When we started trying to evacuate them [the passengers] from the car, another missile attack took place while a huge number of people were gathering trying to help the wounded," said Massoud Ramadan, 65, a shopkeeper, who was hurt by shrapnel.
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