Palestinian Wounds 10 in Attack on French Tourists : Jordan: Gunman tries to avenge slayings of seven Arabs by an Israeli, authorities say in Amman.

A Palestinian gunman, shouting slogans of revenge on behalf of the “Gaza martyrs,” opened fire Monday on a busload of French tourists in Jordan, spraying them with bullets before pulling out a dagger and stabbing two passengers cowering behind the front seats.

Nine tourists and a Jordanian photographer were injured in the mid-morning attack in downtown Amman, which security officials said was to avenge the killing of seven Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip by an Israeli near Tel Aviv a day earlier.

“Where are you, Gazans?” the gunman yelled as he boarded the bus, according to witnesses, and at one point during the attack referred to the “Gaza martyrs.”

Within minutes of the attack, police arrested the man, identified as Ahmad Badwan, 28, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip currently residing in Amman.

French Embassy officials said five of the injured tourists were treated and immediately released. Four others, including a 55-year-old Parisian listed in critical condition, were hospitalized. A 30-year-old Jordanian photographer accompanying the tour group was listed in stable condition with gunshot wounds to both hands.

“It was an isolated attack carried out by a lone gunman,” the Jordanian Information Ministry said, quoting an unidentified security official. “The Jordanian government expresses its deep regret and strong denunciation of this criminal act and wishes to assure everyone that justice will take its course and that such acts will be dealt with with utmost stringency.”

The attack came amid heightened tension all over the region after the Sunday shootings near Tel Aviv by an Israeli.

In Amman, thousands of protesters chanting anti-American slogans and waving the Koran, the holy book of Islam, marched near the U.S. Embassy, wire services reported. Some hurled rocks at police, who fired tear gas and used armored cars to seal off the street where the embassy is located.

Also, protesters at a Palestinian refugee camp near Amman closed the Amman-Damascus highway Sunday night by throwing stones at passing vehicles, and at least 20,000 Palestinians staged a demonstration northwest of the Jordanian capital Monday, chanting “No to Arab Silence!” Thousands more Palestinian refugees demonstrated at camps in Lebanon.

In Cairo, Egypt’s fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood denounced an impending visit to Cairo by Israeli Labor Party leader Shimon Peres and criticized Egypt’s conciliatory stance toward Israel.

At a news conference in Amman, Yassir Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official, condemned the attack against the French tourists, saying it provided cover for Israeli actions against Palestinians.

“We condemn all acts of violence against civilians and believe this was a suspect attack aimed at covering up Israeli actions in the occupied territories and diverting attention from what is happening there,” he said.

The 46-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, in a statement issued from its headquarters in Jidda, Saudia Arabia, said Sunday’s shootings by the Israeli were part of a “world Zionist plan and deceitful conspiracy aimed at terrorizing the Palestinians and forcing them to leave their country for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jewish emigrants (arriving) with the view of building a Greater Israel.”

Jordanian security officials said the incident began at 9:50 a.m., when a busload of 34 French tourists was disembarking in downtown Amman to visit the city’s Roman amphitheater.

Witnesses said the attacker followed the panicked tourists back onto the bus, exhausted his ammunition and then drew a dagger and stabbed two tourists who had taken shelter behind the first row of seats. There were conflicting reports as to whether the gun was a rifle or a pistol.

“He forced everyone to the back of the bus, and he started shooting indiscriminately,” one witness to the incident said.

It was not known why the gunman targeted the French tour group, which had arrived in Jordan on May 18 for a weeklong tour.