Palestinian gunman rakes bus stop

Associated Press

JERUSALEM – A Palestinian gunman opened fire on Israelis waiting at a bus stop in the heart of Jerusalem and wounded 16 people Tuesday – two of them fatally – hours after Israeli commandos stormed an explosives lab and killed four Islamic militants in the West Bank. The violence provoked outrage and warnings of retaliation on both sides.

Mideast tensions are again surging after several weeks of relative calm, with the Israelis effectively keeping Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat under house arrest at his West Bank government compound, and militant Palestinians abandoning an informal truce.

The Israelis said they launched Tuesday’s commando raid in the West Bank city of Nablus and other pre-emptive operations because Arafat repeatedly refused to act against militants. They also held Arafat responsible for the shooting attack on one of west Jerusalem’s busiest streets.

In the Jerusalem shooting, a Palestinian gunman opened fire with an assault rifle on Israelis waiting in the rain for a bus and walking along one of the city’s main arteries, Jaffa Street. The gunman was shot and killed by police after a short chase.

Sixteen people were shot; two women later died of their wounds, while four others remained in serious condition. In addition, more than 20 people were treated for shock, police and rescue workers said.

The gunman, Saeed Ramadan, was a member of the Al Aqsa Brigades, which is linked to Arafat’s Fatah movement, said the man’s uncle. The shooting was retaliation for last week’s killing of an Al Aqsa Brigades’ leader, sources in the group said.

“We are at war,” Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert told Israel television after viewing the carnage. “This war is not taking place in some far-off battleground, but is happening here, at home, in shops, restaurants.”

In the Israeli raid in the West Bank town of Nablus early Tuesday, Israeli commandos entered a ground-floor apartment in a nine-story residential building where Hamas fugitives were hiding, Palestinian witnesses said.

As the soldiers entered the building, Palestinians set off a bomb and fired at the troops, said Israeli Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan. Four soldiers were slightly wounded, he added.

However, the Palestinian intelligence chief in Nablus, Talak Dweikat, said it appeared the four were killed while sleeping.

Palestinian medics found three bodies lying on a floor covered with mattresses and the fourth in the shower, in a sitting position. The man in the shower was stripped to his underwear and the shower tiles were smeared with blood.

Soldiers found large amounts of explosives in the apartment, and nine suspects were arrested, the army said.

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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