Blast Kills 2 in Gaza Strip; Israeli Attacked in Jordan

A powerful roadside bomb exploded early today near a school bus carrying Jewish children from a settlement in the Gaza Strip, Israeli army officials said. At least two people were reported killed and a dozen wounded.

It was not immediately clear if the casualties were among the children or from among a convoy of soldiers that was escorting the bus from the Kfar Darom settlement. Palestinian factions have vowed to fight the presence of Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank.

The explosion interrupted a relative lull in the violence, despite an attack Sunday against an Israeli diplomat in Amman, Jordan.

Yoram Havivian, 39, vice consul at the Israeli Embassy in the Jordanian capital, suffered cuts when gunfire shattered his car window, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari. The gunman sped away.

“He was injured not by the bullets themselves, thank God, but by splinters and glass when it smashed,” she said, adding that Havivian was slightly wounded. Havivian, who has served in Jordan for two years, returned to Israel on Sunday and was examined at a local hospital.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak called the incident “very serious” and said those involved must be brought to justice. Jordan’s Prince Hashem called the Israeli ambassador and voiced concern about the attack, promising full cooperation in the inquiry.

Whether the shooting was related to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not immediately known, Ben-Ari said, adding that embassy staff members in Amman had been attacked before.

Several other violent incidents related to the seven-week intifada were reported Sunday. At the Karni checkpoint in the Gaza Strip, a 14-year-old Palestinian stone-thrower was fatally shot Sunday morning, Palestinian witnesses said. In a suburb of the West Bank city of Nablus, a 22-year-old Palestinian was killed during a shootout with Israeli troops. To the northwest, Israeli soldiers in Abbad wounded a 30-year-old Lebanese civilian in the leg after he failed to stop throwing stones across a border fence. And an Israeli lieutenant colonel was injured nearby when a stone flung by a Lebanese protester struck him in the face, an army spokesman said.

The Israeli army said it was not aware of soldiers shooting the youth in Karni but was investigating. An army spokesman said soldiers returned fire at Palestinian gunmen who shot at an Israeli bus traveling on a nearby road. A Palestinian cargo truck driver was injured by Israeli gunfire.

Soldiers later closed the Karni crossing to the east of Gaza City, cutting off the main supply route between Israel and Gaza. Soldiers also deactivated a large explosive device at the Israeli-Egyptian border, the army reported.

Meanwhile, two previously unknown groups claimed responsibility for the attack in Amman: The Jordanian Islamic Resistance Movement for Struggle, which faxed a statement to a Beirut radio station, and the Group of the Holy Warrior Ahmed Daqamseh, which sent a statement to a Qatari TV station.

Daqamseh is the name of the Jordanian soldier who shot and killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in March 1997. He is serving a life sentence in jail in Jordan.

The last attack against the Israeli Embassy and its staff occurred a year ago. An Arab described by Jordanian officials as deranged fired shots near the embassy last Nov. 23, two days after Jordan expelled four leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.