Mourners at the Jerusalem funeral of Marina Tsahivershvili, killed in yesterday's suicide bomb attack on a bus at the capital's French Hill Junction.
Yonathan Weizman / B
After four terrorist attacks in 24 hours, including a suicide bus bombing at French Hill in Jerusalem yesterday morning in which seven were killed and 20 wounded, the government ordered a total closure on all the territories, rescinding all the abatements it allowed Palestinians last week at the request of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who held a top-level meeting last night with the ministers of foreign affairs, defense and justice, announced at the cabinet meeting a few hours after the bombing that he had postponed his trip to Washington, which was due to begin last night.
A White House spokeswoman later said Sharon would be welcome at a later date, and condemned the bus bombing and sent condolences to the victims' families.
The defense establishment said three of the attacks since Saturday night - the Hebron bombing on Saturday night in which two were killed, the French Hill bombing and a second failed bombing attempt in Jerusalem - were part of a Hamas campaign aimed at disrupting efforts to launch the road map. The fourth attack, by two gunmen who infiltrated Sha'arei Tikva east of Rosh Ha'ayin and were shot dead by an army patrol on Saturday night, was said to be by Fatah-affiliated members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
Bassam Takriri, 18, the Hamas suicide bomber who blew himself up on Egged bus No. 6 in north Jerusalem early yesterday morning, and the second suicide bomber who blew himself up half an hour later at the entry to the nearby Dahit al-Barid neighborhood, were friends, said Palestiian sources, who said that both also were friends of Fuad Qawasmeh, who blew himself up in Hebron on Saturday night, killing Gadi and Dina Levy.
Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr condemned the attack and called on Israel to act with restraint in its response. Amr also said that the Palestinian government must take steps to end such attacks and that the Palestinian Authority's position is to condemn all attacks on civilians.
Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi said the most recent attacks demonstrate the continuation of the resistance movement, and that the bombers "acted in the name of all Palestinian people." Rantisi denied there was a connection between the terror attacks and Saturday night's meeting between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).
The bus bombing took place shortly before 6 A.M., after the No. 6 bus left Pisgat Ze'ev and reached the French Hill junction on its way to Jerusalem. The wounded were evacuated to all four of the capital's hospitals. All seven fatalities of the attack were sitting in the front rows of the bus, witnesses said.
The bomber boarded the bus at the French Hill junction stop. He was apparently disguised as a religious Jew, and set off the bomb as he boarded the bus.
Jerusalem Police Chief Mickey Levy said a second bombing took place at a checkpoint that Border Policemen set up following the bus bombing, in an effort to track down those who had sent the bomber. He said that policemen ordered a suspicious-looking individual to stop, and he blew himself up. The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court issued a gag order on the bomber's identity, at the request of the police and security services. But sources said all three of the Hamas attackers were friends from the same Hebron neighborhood.
The bombings were the first in nearly six months in Jerusalem, though the security forces have successfully thwarted a number of other attempts. It was the 11th attack at the French Hill junction and the 93rd bus bombing since the intifada began in the fall of 2000.
Meanwhile, Egged spokesman Ron Ratner says that the bus company is having difficulty recruiting guards for its Jerusalem buses, in light of the risks now associated with the job and the low wages paid for the guards. The Transportation Ministry says there is a surge in new recruits as bus guards, but many leave after only a short period
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