Jerusalem Suicide Blast Kills 8

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded Jerusalem bus during morning rush hour Sunday, killing eight passengers a day before the world court was to begin hearings on Israel's disputed West Bank barrier.

Israeli officials said the attack — the 110th suicide bombing in more than three years of violence — proved the need to continue building the barrier to keep out future bombers.

"Today there are more funerals, more suffering, more proof that there's no end to the hatred of Israelis," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said. "We will continue to take all necessary measures to provide security for our citizens, including the security fence."

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with top security officials Sunday to discuss possible responses to the attack.

The blast went off around 8:30 a.m. local time, in the peak of the morning rush hour, as the packed public bus drove past a gas station in downtown Jerusalem overlooking the brown stone walls of the Old City. Several high school students were on the bus, and at least two of the dead were teenagers. Sunday is a regular weekday in Israel.

"There was a very strong noise of a bomb and a fierce light, like lightning," said Nili Amotz, a 57-year-old social worker wounded in the bombing.

"It was like an earthquake," witness Ora Yairov told Israel TV.

The bomb, laced with pieces of iron, killed eight people in addition to the bomber and wounded 59 others, rescue officials said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned the bombing, saying it hurt his peoples' effort to mobilize international opposition to the West Bank barrier, a day before hearings on the issue at the International Court of Justice at the Hague.

"We look with anger at what happened today, especially its timing and place. There is an attempt to harm the mission to the Hague," he said.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group loosely affiliated with Qureia's and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the bomber as Mohammed Zool, 23, from the village of Hussan near Bethlehem.

His family said they had trouble believing Zool, who had a child and a pregnant wife, was a militant, and hours after the bombing his mother was still waiting for him to return home from his construction job in Jerusalem. Israeli authorities detained several of Zool's relatives for questioning after the attack, Israeli security sources said.

The explosion ripped apart the back of the green bus and scattered body parts and shattered glass across a two-block radius. The windows were blown out, the windshield splintered and the roof buckled.

"I felt blood on my head. I saw terrible things. I tried not to look," said Moshe Salama, 56, whose glasses were cracked by a piece of flying debris.

An hour after the blast, bodies still lay on the sidewalk. Rescue workers wrapped them in white sheets and put body parts in bags.

Israeli officials said the attack never would have happened had the section of the barrier being built around Jerusalem already been completed. They say the barrier has been responsible for a sharp decrease in attacks in areas where it is complete.

"This terror attack (proves) the absolute necessity of the fence as a lifesaving instrument, and we are determined to continue its construction and complete it," Mofaz said.

The Palestinians say the barrier, which dips into the West Bank, disrupts the lives of thousands of people and amounts to an Israeli effort to take land they want for a future state.

Just before the blast, Israel began pulling down a particularly contentious 5-mile section of fence that isolated the Palestinian town of Baka al-Sharkia from the rest of the West Bank.

Israel's Defense Ministry said that section of fence not needed, because a new section of barrier separating Baka al-Sharkia from Israel is in place.

Israel has come under increasing pressure to reroute the barrier closer to the West Bank boundary and lessen the impact on the lives of Palestinians. The removal of the section Sunday appeared aimed at softening criticism ahead of the Hague hearing, though Israeli officials denied any such link.

Meanwhile, Palestinian students across the West Bank heard a lesson on the barrier, including descriptions about how it separates farmers from their land, students from their schools and divides families.

"There is no future for my people with this fence ... we will be like birds in a cage," said Ikram Abu Aish, a 16-year-old student whose sister carried out a suicide bombing that wounded three policemen.

Sunday's bombing, the first since a suicide bomber killed 11 passengers on a bus Jan. 29, occurred near a meeting of American Jewish leaders.

"The closeness reminds (us) that everyone can be a victim of terror and nobody is immune," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Nir Barkat, a candidate last year for mayor of Jerusalem, was driving near the bus when it exploded. He ran to help the wounded.

"It's horrible what happened here, and the world has to know this," Barkat told Channel Two TV, his hands, pants and shoes still covered in blood.