Ramming of Israeli Crowd Was Probably Terrorism, Police Say

A Southern Californian whose car crashed into a crowded bus stop Monday probably was committing a terrorist act, Israeli police said Tuesday.

Police had said Monday that they were unsure whether Ahmed Abdel Hamid Hamida, a Palestinian American, plowed into the Jerusalem bus stop deliberately or simply lost control of his rental car on a rain-slicked road. An Israeli was killed and 22 other people were injured before armed civilian bystanders killed Hamida.

Jerusalem Police Chief Arieh Amit said Tuesday that a leaflet of the militant Islamic Jihad organization was found in Hamida’s car along with bags of groceries. Police investigators also said they could find no mechanical problem with the car that would have caused Hamida to lose control of it.

“It’s not final, but I have the latest assessment from the checks done by the police,” Internal Security Minister Moshe Shahal told Israel Radio. “The tendency is to see [the] incident as an attack.”

One of Hamida’s sisters, Nawal Hamida, bitterly disputed the Israeli assessment of her brother’s intentions. Sitting in mourning with relatives and friends Tuesday in her home in the West Bank village of Mazra al Sharkiya, Nawal said her brother had rented the car to take her and her three children on a family picnic. She said he had gone grocery shopping for her and was coming back to pick them up when the incident occurred.

“The Israelis are lying, because they need an excuse for shooting him,” Nawal said, her voice choked with emotion. She insisted that her brother was not a religious fanatic and had no political affiliations.

Family members in Southern California said Hamida was not affiliated with any Palestinian political organizations locally. “Nobody in my family has anything to do with Hamas [or Islamic Jihad],” said a cousin. “Everybody roots for [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat and the peace process.”

Another cousin said Hamida went to the West Bank to escape the pressures of his job. Hamida ran a small grocery in East Los Angeles with his brother.

The bus stop incident came a day after two suicide bombers, believed to be members of the militant Hamas movement, detonated bombs in Jerusalem and the coastal town of Ashkelon, killing 25 people and themselves. Israeli security sources said Tuesday that they believe the suicide bombers both came from the Al Fawar Palestinian refugee camp south of the West Bank town of Hebron. The camp is in an area patrolled by Palestinian police but under overall Israeli security control.

Sunday’s bombings triggered a crisis in relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres imposing an indefinite closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and demanding that Arafat, who is president of the authority, destroy the infrastructure of Islamic militants in territories under his control.

On Tuesday, Peres dispatched Maj. Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, the chief of staff, to meet Arafat at the Erez checkpoint, just inside the Gaza Strip, and hand over a list of 10 suspected Hamas militants whom Israel insists Arafat should arrest. Palestinian security officials said Tuesday that they have hauled in at least 130 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for questioning.

“Arafat is in an extremely difficult situation,” said Ziad abu Amr, a member of the elected Palestinian self-governing authority from Gaza and an academic who specializes in Islamic movements. “There is an irony here. Hamas is accusing Arafat of making concessions to Israel. But the net effect of [Sunday’s] attack is that Arafat will have to make more concessions to Israel that will affect Hamas itself.”

In a front-page story Monday, the editor of Al Hayat, a Palestinian newspaper published in the West Bank town of Ramallah, reported that Hamida had come to the newspaper’s offices Sunday after the bomb attacks and behaved strangely.

Hafith Bargouthi said Hamida told him that he had returned to Mazra al Sharkiya after spending years in Rowland Heights and that he had dedicated himself to God.

“He introduced himself and pulled out from his coat pocket his American passport and said he has given himself to God,” Bargouthi wrote. “He explained to me . . . that he was sick and told God that if he would cure him, he will dedicate his life to God and he was cured and now works for God’s sake.”

Bargouthi said villagers in Mazra al Sharkiya told him that before leaving for Jerusalem on Monday, Hamida said they would “see me on television tonight.”

Nawal Hamida denied that her brother had made such a statement and said the family will file a wrongful-death suit against the Israeli civilians who killed him.

Times staff writer Curtius reported from Jerusalem and special correspondent Assad from Mazra al Sharkiya. Staff writer Duke Helfand in Los Angeles contributed to this report.