Young Victims In Mideast Violence
An Israeli tank shell killed at least 11 Palestinians on Thursday while they watched firefighters put out a fire in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, witnesses and hospital officials said. More than 100 people were wounded.
CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger reports the shell slammed into a crowd at the end of an army raid in the camp. The Israeli military said the tank fired at an armed Palestinian; he was hit but so were many civilians.
Israel expressed regret over the civilian casualties, but said it will continue to target the bases of Palestinian terror.
Three of the Palestinians killed in Jabalya Thursday were boys ages 12, 13, and 14. Nine of the 15 victims of the bus bombing were under 18, including Yuval Mendelevitch, 13, and U.S.-born Abigail Litle, 14.
Abigail, a Christian, and Yuval took part in a program at the prestigious Reali school called "Children Teaching Children" that worked to promote understanding between Arab and Jewish students. They had just had their first meeting on Feb. 26.
"For Abigail, it was always that someone be valued as a person, not as an object defined by nationality," said her father, Philip, who works for a Baptist church.
The Israeli military operation in Gaza came hours after the bus bombing.
A gun battle had erupted in Jabalya during an overnight Israeli operation in the refugee camp, witnesses said, and continued as troops pulled out of the area and withdrew into an alley.
The troops fired tank shells and heavy machine guns. A helicopter hovering overhead fired missiles, hitting a group of people who were watching the firefighters at work.
"Until now, we have 11 killed and more than 100 wounded, among them 30 are in very critical condition, in a new massacre committed against the citizens of Jabalya," said Dr. Moawia Hassanen, chief of emergency services at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Earlier, two other Palestinians were killed during the army's operation in Gaza. The army blew up two buildings, including one belonging to a Hamas activist.
A Reuters TV cameraman and photographer were among the wounded.
The military sweep came as Israelis mourned the 15 passengers killed by the suicide bomber in Wednesday's bus bombing, which ended a two-month lull in suicide bombings. The blast injured 55 people.
About 10 of the victims were high school students - among them 14-year-old Avigail Leitner, a U.S. citizen, authorities said. Two soldiers were also killed.
Police said the suicide bomber, Mahmoud Hamdan Kawasme, 20, of the West Bank city of Hebron, was carrying a letter praising the Sept. 11 attacks. No group claimed responsibility for the bus blast by Thursday night, though Hamas has threatened to avenge activists killed or arrested in Israel's recent raids in Gaza. The family of the suicide bomber said he was 20 and a Hamas member. Troops arrested his father and two brothers Wednesday night.
In a first response to the attack, Israel's Security Cabinet ordered the closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip until further notice, banning all Palestinians from entering Israel, the Israeli military said early Thursday. Later, about 50 Israeli tanks accompanied by helicopter gunships moved deep into the Jabaliya camp.
Israel's new hard-line government had pledged earlier to step up strikes against militant strongholds in the Gaza area. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in more than two weeks of raids.
Bus No. 37 was packed with students from Haifa University when it stopped in the hilltop neighborhood of Carmelia at 2:17 p.m. to let off passengers.
"I suddenly heard an explosion," said bus driver Marwan Damouni, an Israeli Arab, who was being treated at a hospital. "I didn't feel anything. I didn't hear anything. I opened my eyes after a minute and saw blood all over my arms."
The explosion blew off the bus roof, shattered all its windows and toppled nearby palm trees. Floodlights cast an eerie glow on the scene, illuminating the charred skeleton of the vehicle.
The bomb was laden with metal shrapnel for greater deadliness, according to Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki. Initial reports said the blast was caused by 130 pounds of explosives.
Ovadia Saar, who was driving another bus just behind the one that was attacked, said he saw "the back of the bus fly into the air, and the windows blew out and a great cloud of dust covered the bus."
"I got out and ran toward the bus. It was a horrible sight. There were a few bodies in the street," he said. "Those we saw breathing, we evacuated."
A spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, praised the bombing but did not claim responsibility. "We will not stop our resistance," he said. "We are not going to give up in the face of the daily killing" of Palestinians.
After the bus bombing, some Palestinians in Gaza called each other on cell phones. Some were jubilant.
"It's about time. They've kept on hitting us and killing us, and now we've struck back," said an ice cream vendor in Gaza, who refused to give his name.
Students from Haifa university rushed to television sets to watch the coverage. Initially, a cafeteria manager refused to switch the channel from MTV, fearing arguments would erupt among students. Of the university's 15,000 students, about 20 percent are Arab.
"Haifa is the city where Arabs and Jews live together," said Eyal Berkovic, 25, a first year Jewish biology student who was waiting for the bus to take him to an afternoon class when the blast shook the ground. "It should be an example" of getting along, he said.
Police did not immediately have details on the American victim, Avigail Leitner, and her links to the United States.
The indefinite closure of West Bank and Gaza threatens to aggravate a crippled Palestinian economy. Two reports issued by the United Nations and World Bank on Wednesday linked such closures to the economic woes, saying almost 2 million Palestinians live on less than $2 a day.
The Haifa blast was the first terror attack in Israel since Jan. 5, when a pair of suicide bombers killed 23 people in Tel Aviv. It was the first bus bombing since Nov. 21, when 11 passengers were killed in a suicide attack in Jerusalem.
There have been 87 suicide attacks in Israel in 29 months of violence that has left 2,160 people dead on the Palestinian side and 743 on the Israeli side. The violence ended talks on a final peace settlement and helped Sharon win re-election.