Two Suicide Bombings Kill 13 in Israel

JERUSALEM â€”  Two suicide bombers struck hours apart Tuesday, setting off powerful explosions at a crowded bus stop outside a suburban Tel Aviv army base and a trendy late-night cafe in Jerusalem. At least 13 people were killed in the blasts, along with the bombers, and dozens were hurt.

The back-to-back bombings underscore the difficulty Ahmed Korei, the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister-designate, is likely to face as he tries to win the confidence of the Israeli government and the Bush administration and revive a faltering U.S.-backed peace plan.

After receiving news of the attacks, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cut short what had been the first visit by an Israeli leader to India to fly home for urgent consultations. Israel has repeatedly accused the Palestinian Authority of failing to crack down on militants, and some officials said Tuesday’s bombings would lead to a renewed debate on expelling Yasser Arafat from Palestinian territories.

The blasts came three days after Israel dropped a laser-guided bomb on a building in Gaza City where the leadership of the militant group Hamas was meeting. No one was killed in that attack, but Hamas vowed vengeance “on a scale never before seen.� Hamas praised Tuesday’s bombings but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Israeli officials said both bombers were believed to be Hamas members from the same village outside the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Hamas supporters rejoiced as word of the bombings spread. In a rundown neighborhood of Gaza City that is home to many Hamas leaders, celebrants fired semiautomatic weapons into the air and shouted, “God is great!�

In the course of the nearly three-year Palestinian uprising, there have been more than 100 suicide bombings against Israeli targets, but it is rare for two to take place on the same day.

The first bomber struck outside the Tzrifin military base in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Le Zion just before 6 p.m., as a shift change was taking place and the gates were thronged with arriving and departing soldiers.

In the blast’s wake, bloodied army boots, torn rucksacks and mangled body parts littered the area around an open-air roadside shelter used by young soldiers catching buses or hitching rides. Seven soldiers, three of them women, were killed. About two dozen others were injured.

“I saw what looked like an injured man lying on the ground,� said Meirav Aish, an 18-year-old soldier who ran to help when she heard the blast.

“Then I got closer and saw he was dead, torn all to bits. I saw a woman soldier who was completely burned -- her hair, her eyelashes, her clothes, everything.�

Barely 5 1/2 hours later, the second bomber struck, targeting a popular cafe on a Jerusalem street packed with restaurants and boutiques. The bomber managed to force his way among the tables, even with two security guards posted in the cafe, one indoors and one outside.

“When I heard the enormous explosion, I knew it couldn’t be anything else,� said Batya Bronski, who lives nearby and rushed to see what had happened.

The front windows were shattered, strewing the sidewalk with glass, and the cafe’s distinctive red-and-black sign was knocked askew.

“He was wearing dark clothes, but I couldn’t see his face,� Miran Azran, a waitress at the cafe, said of the bomber. “The explosion was tremendous -- glass everywhere. I saw people injured, dead.�

Dozens of ambulances and police vehicles converged on the narrow, congested street, lights flashing and sirens blaring. “Back, back!� rescue workers shouted to the gathering crowd. In addition to the bomber, six people were killed in the second blast.

The evening bombings capped what had already been a bloody day.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops besieged a seven-story building in Hebron that the army described as a hideout for militants, although it was home to many Palestinian families as well. Three Palestinians were killed: a local Hamas commander, an aide and a child.

A fourth Palestinian died in the Gaza Strip, apparently as he tried to plant an explosive device.

Korei condemned bloodshed on all sides in his first policy statement since his nomination Sunday by Arafat, the Palestinian Authority president.

“We condemn all acts of killing that target innocents, whether they be Palestinians ... or the Israelis who were victims of today’s explosion,� he said, speaking before the second attack.

“Such incidents confirm the necessity for both the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to ... study the most effective ways to put an end to the killing.�

The renewed violence came as Korei, whose acceptance of the prime minister’s job appeared all but certain, continued to weigh his terms for formally agreeing to take the job. Korei has insisted that the United States and Israel end their isolation of Arafat, whom they have tried to marginalize for more than a year.

The bombings lent new impetus to Israel’s demand that the incoming Palestinian Authority prime minister make fighting terrorism his central task.

“You don’t talk with these terrorist organizations. You have to fight them,� said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled. “And we expect the Palestinian prime minister to take a strategic decision to not only fight terrorism, but also to send a message to the Palestinian people saying terror cannot be accepted, and that these extreme elements are harming the Palestinian cause.�

Israel has been in a state of near-wartime alert since its attack on the Hamas leaders. The group’s spiritual leader, aging, wheelchair-bound cleric Sheik Ahmed Yassin, escaped with minor injuries, but the attempt on his life shocked many ordinary Palestinians and led to promises of revenge.�Israel must pay for its crimes,� Abdulaziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip who was injured in an Israeli assassination attempt in June, said Tuesday. “Hamas will not stand by while the blood of Palestinians is shed.�

After the failed airstrike Saturday, Israel sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip and set up dozens of surprise roadblocks at the entrances to Israeli cities and towns. Authorities reported dozens of “hot� intelligence warnings, meaning that attackers were believed to already be en route to targets or were about to be dispatched.

“We are deployed to the limit of our ability,� national police commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki told reporters. He added that it was “impossible to hermetically seal all places that could be targets.... We cannot place a policeman on every street corner in the country.�

Witnesses interviewed by Israeli media offered contradictory accounts of the attack outside the Tzrifin military base. One report said the bomber was a man dressed in an Israeli army uniform; another said the assailant might have been female.

As of late Tuesday, police could not substantiate either account.

Another suicide bombing three weeks ago in a Jerusalem bus packed with observant Jews on their way home from prayers killed more than 20 people. That assault shattered a unilateral truce by Palestinian militant groups and helped set in motion the chain of events that unseated Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

He quit Saturday after a protracted power struggle with Arafat, which culminated in a dispute over control of the Palestinian security forces.

Israel had strongly hinted that another serious attack could result in Arafat’s expulsion. Several senior Israeli officials have been calling for his ouster, but many in Israel’s security establishment believe that he will pose more of a threat if he is free to roam the region than he does confined to his half-ruined headquarters.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said there would be a debate on Arafat’s future when Sharon returned to Israel. Shalom is among those who advocate expelling Arafat.

The bombings also rekindled debate over whether Korei, a longtime Arafat associate, would be able to assert sufficient independence from him. Some senior Israeli officials fear he cannot.

Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, speaking at a counterterrorism conference before Tuesday’s attacks, said that even with a change of prime ministers, there was the prospect of “a leadership with all paths leading to Arafat.�

Former Israeli negotiator Yossi Beilin disagreed. Speaking of Korei, he said: “He’s not somebody who really adores Arafat -- he’s not part of the clique of yes-men around him.�

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Special correspondent Tami Zer contributed to this report from Rishon Le Zion.