Jerusalem Explosion Kills at Least 10, Wounds 50

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 03, 2002

Jerusalem Explosion Kills at Least 10, Wounds 50

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At least 10 people were killed and 50 others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem on Saturday evening, Israel Channel One TV reported.

Earlier reports said that five people were in serious condition and six others sustained moderate injuries. The blast occurred next to a yeshiva on Haim Ozer Street, close to the Mea Shearim neighborhood,as hundreds of worshippers were leaving synagogues in the area.

According to a senior official at Bikur Holim Hospital in Jerusalem, a one-year-old baby girl was killed in the blast.

Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said that there had been no warnings of a terrorist attack in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood. He said that the suicide bomber had apparently blown himself up in a group of civilians.

"There are a number of people who have been killed and there are wounded who have been evacuated to hospital," Levy told Army Radio. "There is a lot of damage," he added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

The area has been the site of a number of terrorist attacks in the past year. A car bomb detonated in Mea Shearim in February 2001, wounding five Israelis. An explosive device was found in a car in the neighborhood in March, but was neutralized safely by security forces.

The suicide bombing attack on Saturday night was one of the most severe blasts that took place in the 17 months of Israeli- Palestinian bloody conflicts. It also took place after four days of intense Israeli military operations in the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, killing more than 30 Palestinians. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the operations.

The Israeli army said the operations were intended to eradicate Palestinian "terrorism."

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