Palestinian Gunman Opens Fire on Jerusalem Bus, Killing Two

A Palestinian fired an M-16 rifle repeatedly into a crowded bus at a busy intersection here Sunday afternoon, killing two teenagers and wounding dozens of other people before security officers shot him dead.

Despite the attack, Israel pulled its troops out of Kalkilya, one of six Palestinian-controlled West Bank towns Israel swept into last month after a government minister was assassinated.

The withdrawal was completed before dawn today, an army spokesman said. The United States has demanded that Israel pull back from all Palestinian-controlled West Bank territories, known as “Area A.” Troops and tanks left Bethlehem and Beit Jala last week, but the Israeli government insisted that the army would leave other towns only if the Palestinians arrested militants and offered security guarantees.

“We don’t want to remain in Area A,” said government spokesman Daniel Seaman, speaking at the scene of Sunday’s attack. “But all the evidence is that [Palestinian Authority President Yasser] Arafat is condoning this kind of behavior by Islamic Jihad and Hamas.”

The Palestinian Authority condemned the shooting in a statement and ordered its security forces to arrest anyone involved.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his Cabinet on Sunday morning that he had canceled a planned visit to the United States, and a scheduled meeting the next Sunday with President Bush, because of the volatile security situation. Sharon advisor Danny Ayalon said the prime minister fears Israel’s pullout from West Bank towns could spark fresh attacks and wants to be here to monitor events.

Islamic Jihad Claims Responsibility

Police said the gunman was 24-year-old Khatem Shweiki of the West Bank city of Hebron, whom they described as a “known member” of Islamic Jihad. The radical organization, which has carried out a string of deadly suicide attacks inside Israel, claimed responsibility for the shooting in a leaflet.

Eyewitnesses said that Shweiki stood on an embankment at the French Hill intersection, in an area of northeastern Jerusalem close to many Palestinian villages. The densely populated Jewish neighborhood was built on disputed land that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the June 1967 Middle East War. An Israeli was shot and wounded there by a Palestinian gunman in February, and a suicide bomber blew himself up at the intersection in March, injuring 30 people.

The afternoon rush hour of the start of the Israeli workweek had just begun when Shweiki opened fire on the red-and-white No. 25 bus heading downtown from the northern suburbs. He emptied a magazine of about 30 bullets into the bus, shattering most of its windows, hitting many of its 40 passengers and sending passersby diving for cover. Panicked drivers fled their cars.

Mazal Amsalem, a teacher at an Orthodox girls’ school, was on the bus with many of her students. “I heard the shots, and I said to myself, ‘Shma Yisrael,’ ” Amsalem told Israel Television, referring to the prayer observant Jews are supposed to recite before death. “I called out to my girls, ‘Get down!’ Nobody understood what was going on, but I yelled again, ‘Get down.’ ” Amsalem said the girls began praying and reading psalms as the shooting continued.

Shoshana Ben Yishai, 16, from the Jewish settlement of Betar Ilit in the West Bank, and Menashe Regev, 14, from Jerusalem, were killed in the attack. One other person was critically wounded, and five more were seriously wounded, according to hospital officials. Eleven people remained in the hospital this morning.

The Education Ministry said that 10 students from one school were lightly injured in the shooting.

Jerusalem Police Chief Miki Levy said a border patrolman, a soldier and a civilian driver who heard the shooting all opened fire on the gunman, killing him instantly. Eyewitnesses said they saw two other Palestinians running from the scene; police launched a manhunt for them in nearby Palestinian villages, but Levy said police were not convinced they were involved.

There have been several such attacks inside Israel lately. Four women were killed in Hadera last week when two gunmen opened fire from a car on a busy downtown street. Security officials say the shootings are relatively easy to carry out and much harder to thwart than suicide bombings, which require more planning and equipment.

Broken Glass and Blood Left in Attack’s Wake

What has become the familiar debris of attacks here littered the area as a long line of ambulances scooped up victims and rushed them off to hospitals. Police tape, shards of glass and plastic gloves stained with blood lay scattered across the asphalt. Rescue workers bundled the seriously injured onto gurneys, then turned their attention to comforting the physically unscathed. A group of teenage girls sat huddled on a curb, weeping and hugging each other.

Earlier in the day, in an interview with The Times in his Ramallah headquarters, Palestinian security chief Col. Jibril Rajoub insisted that the Palestinian Authority will not arrest militants just because Israel tells it to.

“Arresting people is not a target for the Palestinian Authority, not a goal,” Rajoub said. Members of the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which claimed responsibility for assassinating Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on Oct. 17, have been arrested, as have some Islamic Jihad members, he said, but not because Israel demanded it.

“We take measures to protect our national interests,” he said. “To give the Israelis the veto, the right to give us lists [of people to arrest], this will never happen.”

Rajoub said he met with various Palestinian factions and militias after the Palestinian Authority declared on Sept. 18 that it would observe a cease-fire, “and we warned them: Boys, you will not dictate our national agenda.” Those who do not heed the warning, Rajoub said, will be arrested, even if they are members of Fatah, Arafat’s faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

“We told them: We have legal institutions, we have a political leadership. Please recharge your mental batteries and understand how critical the situation is” for the Palestinian people, Rajoub said.