Palestinian suicide bomber kills 9

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a bus in northern Israel during rush hour Sunday, killing at least eight others, wounding dozens and scattering charred remains across the highway. A child's drawing of two hearts lay amid the debris.\nHamas claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Web site -- the militant group's second deadly bombing in four days.\nThree hours after the bombing at the Meron Junction near the town of Tsfat, a Palestinian attacker opened fire just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, sparking a gun battle with police that left three people dead, including an Israeli security guard, an Arab bystander and the gunman.\nAlso Sunday, four Israeli soldiers were wounded in a bombing attack outside the West Bank city of Ramallah, three Israelis were wounded in a shooting ambush in the northern West Bank, and soldiers shot and killed an armed Palestinian dressed in a wet suit who had apparently swum to an area near the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.\nPresident Bush said he was "distressed" to learn of the Sunday bombing.\n"There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started. We must not let them," Bush said as he began a daybreak golf game with his father in Kennebunkport, Maine. "For the sake of humanity, for the sake of the Palestinians who suffer, for the sake of the Israelis who are under attack, we must stop the terror."\nAn Israeli official blamed the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, for the attack, saying it showed it "feeds on terror."\n"This Palestinian terror must be uprooted and Israel will not relent in its pursuit of, and war against, Palestinian terror," said David Baker, an official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.\nThe Palestinian leadership condemned the bombing, but also accused Sharon of "war crimes" for the Israeli army's mass detentions, home demolitions and curfews imposed on Palestinians.\nThe blast came four days after a bomb exploded in a cafeteria at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, killing seven people, including five Americans.\nHamas claimed responsibility for that bombing as well, saying it was a response to the killing of the group's military leader, Salah Shehadeh, in an Israeli bombing in Gaza City last month. That Israeli attack also killed 14 Palestinian civilians.\nRecent Palestinian attacks prompted Israel to raid the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday in a hunt for militants. Israeli troops remained in the city on Sunday.\nThe bus in northern Israel was packed with people on their way to work and a number of soldiers returning to their base at the beginning of the work week.\nNine people were killed in the explosion, including the bomber and a number of soldiers, said police spokesman Yaron Zamir.\nThirty-seven people were injured, two critically, said David Peretz, head of the emergency ambulance service Magen David Adom in northern Israel.\nChaim Itzkovitch was just leaving his house for work early Sunday morning when the bus exploded in a fireball.\n"I heard a big bomb and I could see flames in the air. I rode here on my bicycle. Everything was quiet," said Itzkovitch, 50, as he fought back tears. Initially, he said, "I didn't hear anyone saying, 'help me.' I went into the bus through the door and I could see men and women lying on the floor."\nA moment later, cries for help broke out among the dozens of wounded.\n"There was a lot of screaming, horrible screaming inside the bus," said Avraham Freed, who owns a restaurant near the bus stop where the blast took place. "I saw one person on the ground next to the bus -- bodies, parts of bodies, people jumping through the windows."\nHours later, police and ultra-Orthodox Jewish volunteers were still picking through the debris to collect remains for burial and evidence for the investigation.\nThe debris included a child's drawing of two hearts. The smell of burnt metal and flesh penetrated the warm, morning air.\nRon Ratner, a spokesman for the Egged bus company, said the passengers on bus No. 361 from the coastal town of Haifa to Tsfat were regulars on Sunday morning, many of them soldiers headed to bases in the north. He said security in Haifa is tight, but that a bomber could have boarded at one of the bus stops on the way.\nIn the Jerusalem shooting, the Palestinian gunmen used a pistol to fire at close range on a truck belonging to Israel's main phone company, Bezeq. A security guard was killed and the driver was injured, police said.\nSeconds later, Israeli police began firing, witnesses said. The gunman was killed by police, and an Arab bystander was hit and killed by cross fire, Israeli officials said. Six people were hurt in the shooting outside the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City.\nIn the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, soldiers shot and killed an armed Palestinian dressed in a wet suit who had apparently swum to an area near the Jewish settlements of Dugit and Alei Sinai, the army said.\nAlso Sunday, four Israeli soldiers were wounded, three of them seriously, when a roadside bomb damaged their jeep near an Israeli military base outside the West Bank city of Ramallah.\nIn the northern West Bank, three Israelis were wounded in a shooting ambush in the northern West Bank, according to Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a spokesmen for the Jewish settlers. Two of the wounded were soldiers and one was a civilian, he added.\nIn another development Sunday, the army pressed its new policy of demolishing homes of suicide bombers and other militants, blowing up nine houses in West Bank -- four in the Jenin area, three in Nablus and two in Hebron. The army said the houses all belonged to militants who carried out or orchestrated attacks against Israelis.\nMeanwhile, Israeli soldiers kept up its siege on Nablus, searching shops and houses for militants Israel says are responsible for recent attacks.\nThe army entered the town's Old City early Friday, arresting dozens of Palestinians and destroying at least two houses it said were bomb factories.\nIsraeli officials said Nabus had replaced Jenin as the main hub of terrorist cells responsible for recent attacks on Israelis.\nIsraeli officials had said high-level talks between Sharon and Palestinian Cabinet ministers could be expected later this week, but it was unclear whether the meetings would go ahead as planned after Sunday's attacks.