More Mideast Violence

The United States used its veto power late Tuesday to kill a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have urged creation of an international observer force to protect civilians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The vote was 9-1 with four abstentions and Ukraine not voting. In favor were Bangladesh, Colombia, Jamaica, Mali, Mauritius, Singapore, Tunisia, Russia and China. Abstaining were Britain, France, Ireland and Norway.

Supporters of the Palestinians, to the dismay of the West, said they pushed for a vote before an Arab summit ended in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday. They said a delay until Wednesday morning requested by the United States on a compromise European text was not acceptable after five days of marathon talks.

At issue was a repeat appeal by Palestinians for the Security Council, at a minimum, to state its willingness to send unarmed U.N. observers to the West Bank and Gaza, even if Israel refused to allow them into the territories.

The United States, Israel's ally, had been negotiating intensely on the European draft that would not commit the council to any specific action without the agreement of Israel and the Palestinians. More than 400 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in six months of violence between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

Supporters of the Palestinians had been calling for the resolution while Palestinian militants were setting off two explosions in Jerusalem six hours apart and Israeli soldiers were clashing with Palestinians. Two people died in the violence.

One bombing was done by remote control near a shopping mall and the second took place when a man with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up outside a bus.

One person was killed, apparently the bus attacker, and 30 people were injured in the back-to-back explosions which came after Monday's killing of a 10-month-old Israeli girl by Palestinian snipers in Hebron.

Commenting in Amman, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has denounced Israel's actions in response to Monday's shooting of the baby girl, namely, the order for Palestinians to leave the Abu Sneineh neighborhood in Hebron, which Israeli forces then shelled. Seven Palestinians were hurt in that attack.

An eleven-year-old Palestinian boy was killed Tuesday in a clash with Israeli soldiers near Hebron.

"I can assure them (the Palestinians) that the response…will be swift," says Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin.

The terror attacks are increasing the pressure on Sharon to strike back hard against Palestinian violece, reports CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins.

Sharon blamed Palestinian president Yasser Arafat for the upsurge in violence.

"There is one man who is responsible for that and that is Yasser Arafat, who has instructed his forces to step up terror," Sharon said.

Observers note Israel probably will not retaliate for the bombings until the end of the Arab summit, because Israeli violence during the meeting could make it easier for Arafat to line up allies at the two-day-long conference.

"We have a war here," said Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, adding that the government had expected an escalation of violence during the Arab summit.

Reuters Jewish settlers paint the name of the slain baby on the wall of a Palestinian shop taken over by settlers.

Danny Sarero, 35, said he was standing a few yards away from the bus when he heard the explosion. "The next thing I knew I saw a person cut in two, a body and a head lying in the street. I've never seen such a thing. Pieces of flesh strewn around for 50 meters," Sarero said. "I'm in shock."

Jerusalem Police Chief Micky Levy said the body was that of the attacker who was "wearing a belt of explosives."

In a leaflet sent to news agencies, an unknown Palestinian group calling itself the Popular Army Front claimed responsibility for the blast.

Islamic Jihad is claiming responsibility for an earlier explosion, a car bomb that went off at 7:40 a.m. near a shopping center in Talpiot, a commercial neighborhood in southern Jerusalem. Three passengers in a bus passing by at the time of the explosion were lightly hurt.

"We heard an enormous bang," said Shai Cohen, an employee at a nearby bakery. "Burning (car) parts were strewn all over the street. Some of the parts flew right across the intersection into the east entrance of the mall. Children were screaming and running into the mall for shelter."

Jewish settlers in Hebron demanded that the Israeli army retake Abu Sneineh. The parents of the victim in Monday's shooting, 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass, said they would not bury the child until Abu Sneineh is back under Israeli control. Jewish law requires quick burial, but the parents said they obtained rabbinical approval for their decision.

Israeli troops withdrew from 80 percent of Hebron, a city of 130,000 Palestinians, in 1997, as part of interim peace agreements. Israel retained control over the downtown area that is home to 450 Jewish settlers who live there in several heavily fortiied enclaves.

AP Soldiers guard boys reading from the Book of Psalms in Hebron.

About 30,000 Palestinian residents of the Israeli-controlled downtown area were confined to their homes. Settlers were for the most part permitted to move about freely.

Several times Monday night and during the day Tuesday, dozens of Jewish settlers ran out of their small enclave and toward the hill from which Palestinian gunmen have been firing. Soldiers wrestled the settlers to the ground and pushed them back into their neighborhood.

"The blood is very hot in Hebron," said Col. Noam Tibon, commander of the Israeli troops in that part of the West Bank, as he called on both sides to refrain from carrying out any attacks. "Our job is to prevent any trouble."

Israel came in for some criticism Tuesday from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Speaking at the Arab Summit in Amman, Annan said the world has every right to criticize Israel for occupying Arab land and its "excessively harsh response" to the Palestinian uprising.

Annan at the same time told Arab leaders that Israel does have the right to exist. "There is no solution to be found in violence, and no sense in postponing the day when the parties return to the table," said Annan.

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