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BEERSHEBA, Israel (Reuters) - Palestinian suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in simultaneous attacks on two Israeli buses Tuesday, breaking a long lull in such violence and potentially disrupting an Israeli plan to pull out of Gaza.
The bombings in the southern city of Beersheba were the first in Israel since March and the deadliest since last October. They showed that Hamas militants were not a spent force even after repeated Israeli assassinations of their leaders and building of a West Bank barrier .
The Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the new attacks as vengeance for Israel's assassination of Hamas's two top leaders in helicopter missile strikes carried out soon after two suicide bombers hit the Israeli port of Ashdod.
Israeli officials said signs that the bombers made their way to Beersheba from the nearby West Bank city of Hebron underlined the urgency of finishing construction of a barrier in the territory aimed at keeping out such attackers.
Palestinians denounce the barrier as a grab of land they seek for statehood because it would take in large Jewish settlements. The World Court has ruled the barrier illegal.
The Beersheba bloodshed could make it harder for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) to overcome resistance in his right-wing camp to his plan for evacuating occupied Gaza and bits of the West Bank to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians.
Anti-pullout protesters quickly descended on the scene of the bombing, waving banners that condemned the withdrawal plan.
Rightist hawks powerful in Sharon's Likud party contend that quitting Gaza would "reward Palestinian terrorism."
But Sharon dismissed an Israel Radio report quoting a senior government official as saying the fresh assault by Hamas, sworn to destroy Israel itself, was designed to sabotage his plan.
"Israel will keep fighting terror with all its might. This attack has nothing to do with disengagement but only the murderous nature of Palestinian terrorists," he told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Sharon had set out a timetable for steps toward pulling 8,000 Jewish settlers out of Gaza. He said a draft bill establishing rules for compensating uprooted Jewish settlers would be put to his cabinet by Sept. 26.
Sharon's plan has destabilized his coalition. But he is counting on majority support in opinion polls, and the reluctance of rightists to risk parliamentary seats at early elections, to achieve the withdrawal.
"Disengagement will be carried out. Period," Sharon said before the Beersheba attack.
ATTACK STUNS ISRAELIS AFTER LULL
The bombers boarded the buses at the same stop near the central bus station and detonated hidden explosive belts when the two vehicles were just a few dozen yards apart. The blasts gutted the buses and sent smoke funneling into the sky.
Israeli emergency services said at least 15 people were killed and medics said 86 were wounded, some critically.
"This is a real surprise. People had been feeling safe again because there'd been no terrorist attacks for months," said Sharon Levi, 24, who reached the bus stop just after the ill-fated buses pulled away.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, visiting Egypt, bemoaned the bombings. "Killing civilians, whether from the Palestinian side or Israeli side, will achieve nothing except hatred and more enmity and therefore we condemn that strongly."
The European Union (news - web sites) and Washington echoed Qurie, saying such violence undermines efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict.
Shortly before the Beersheba bombings, Palestinian militants renewed their vow to continue fighting Israel until it quit all territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli soldiers at a Gaza border terminal captured a would-be suicide bomber Tuesday who was wearing a new form of explosives belt hidden in his underwear, the army said.
Israel says the 120 miles of its barrier erected so far have thwarted dozens of would-be bomber infiltrations into its densely populated north and coastal regions.
But sections between Jerusalem and Hebron have been held up by an Israeli court order that they be rerouted to avoid cutting off Palestinians from their farmlands.
"We're confident once the fence is complete, terrorism like (in Beersheba) will stop," government spokesman Avi Pazner said. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul and Bernhard Warner in Beersheba, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Haitham Tamimi in Hebron, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Edmund Blair in Cairo)
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it was only a matter of time until one slipped through.
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BEERSHEBA, Israel (Reuters) - Palestinian suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in simultaneous attacks on two Israeli buses Tuesday, breaking a long lull in such violence and potentially disrupting an Israeli plan to pull out of Gaza.
The bombings in the southern city of Beersheba were the first in Israel since March and the deadliest since last October. They showed that Hamas militants were not a spent force even after repeated Israeli assassinations of their leaders and building of a West Bank barrier .
The Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the new attacks as vengeance for Israel's assassination of Hamas's two top leaders in helicopter missile strikes carried out soon after two suicide bombers hit the Israeli port of Ashdod.
Israeli officials said signs that the bombers made their way to Beersheba from the nearby West Bank city of Hebron underlined the urgency of finishing construction of a barrier in the territory aimed at keeping out such attackers.
Palestinians denounce the barrier as a grab of land they seek for statehood because it would take in large Jewish settlements. The World Court has ruled the barrier illegal.
The Beersheba bloodshed could make it harder for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) to overcome resistance in his right-wing camp to his plan for evacuating occupied Gaza and bits of the West Bank to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians.
Anti-pullout protesters quickly descended on the scene of the bombing, waving banners that condemned the withdrawal plan.
Rightist hawks powerful in Sharon's Likud party contend that quitting Gaza would "reward Palestinian terrorism."
But Sharon dismissed an Israel Radio report quoting a senior government official as saying the fresh assault by Hamas, sworn to destroy Israel itself, was designed to sabotage his plan.
"Israel will keep fighting terror with all its might. This attack has nothing to do with disengagement but only the murderous nature of Palestinian terrorists," he told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Sharon had set out a timetable for steps toward pulling 8,000 Jewish settlers out of Gaza. He said a draft bill establishing rules for compensating uprooted Jewish settlers would be put to his cabinet by Sept. 26.
Sharon's plan has destabilized his coalition. But he is counting on majority support in opinion polls, and the reluctance of rightists to risk parliamentary seats at early elections, to achieve the withdrawal.
"Disengagement will be carried out. Period," Sharon said before the Beersheba attack.
ATTACK STUNS ISRAELIS AFTER LULL
The bombers boarded the buses at the same stop near the central bus station and detonated hidden explosive belts when the two vehicles were just a few dozen yards apart. The blasts gutted the buses and sent smoke funneling into the sky.
Israeli emergency services said at least 15 people were killed and medics said 86 were wounded, some critically.
"This is a real surprise. People had been feeling safe again because there'd been no terrorist attacks for months," said Sharon Levi, 24, who reached the bus stop just after the ill-fated buses pulled away.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, visiting Egypt, bemoaned the bombings. "Killing civilians, whether from the Palestinian side or Israeli side, will achieve nothing except hatred and more enmity and therefore we condemn that strongly."
The European Union (news - web sites) and Washington echoed Qurie, saying such violence undermines efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict.
Shortly before the Beersheba bombings, Palestinian militants renewed their vow to continue fighting Israel until it quit all territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli soldiers at a Gaza border terminal captured a would-be suicide bomber Tuesday who was wearing a new form of explosives belt hidden in his underwear, the army said.
Israel says the 120 miles of its barrier erected so far have thwarted dozens of would-be bomber infiltrations into its densely populated north and coastal regions.
But sections between Jerusalem and Hebron have been held up by an Israeli court order that they be rerouted to avoid cutting off Palestinians from their farmlands.
"We're confident once the fence is complete, terrorism like (in Beersheba) will stop," government spokesman Avi Pazner said. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul and Bernhard Warner in Beersheba, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Haitham Tamimi in Hebron, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Edmund Blair in Cairo)
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it was only a matter of time until one slipped through.
