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Sharon Repeats Ceasefire Call After Hadera Bombing Attack
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Friday afternoon repeated his call to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for a ceasefire after two Palestinian suicide bombers blasted their car up in northern Israeli coastal city of Hadera.
At least 50 Israelis were wounded in the incident, which occurred three days after Sharon announced a so-call "unilateral ceasefire" from the Israeli side, refraining the Israeli army from taking initiated operations.
Earlier Friday, another Palestinian suicide bomber blasted the truck he was driving when he approached an Israeli army outpost in the Gaza Strip, killing himself but failing to wound any Israeli soldiers.
Inspecting the site of a building collapse disaster in western Jerusalem, Sharon made comments on the two suicide bombing attacks, saying that the attacks will not change his determination for a ceasefire between the two sides.
Over 550 people have been killed, most of them Palestinians, in the Palestinian-Israeli violence since it erupted last September.
"Of course, in any case in which we are in danger, we won't sit with our hands tied. But our tendency is, even if we must wait for a few more days, to give the Palestinian (National) Authority the possibility of calling a ceasefire," Sharon said.
The Palestinians had termed Sharon's ceasefire announcement as " a public relations ploy."
Sharon also said that Israel had "fully" accepted the report published by the international fact-finding committee last Monday, which Sharon claimed first and foremost calls for a total stop of violence.
"That is the position of Israel, the United States, and the writers of the report: The first thing is that the terror must end," he said.
The report urged both sides to refrain from fighting, carry out confidence-building measures after a calm period, and then resume their peace talks.
Sharon promised Friday that an end to "Palestinian violence is what will open up other processes," obviously referring to Palestinians' demands to freeze Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and resume peace talks.
The bombing attack in Hadera, some 40 kilometers north of Tel Aviv, took place at about 2 p.m. (1100 GMT) Friday when two Palestinians exploded "relative large devices" on a side street near the bus station, killing themselves.
Police sources said that the car then rammed an Israeli bus traveling from Tel Aviv to northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shemona, some 100 kilometers northeast of Hadera, wounding at least 44 people.
Most of the injured sustained lightly to moderately wounds, among them a 10-year-old boy and a seven-month-old baby.
The bombing incident occurred exactly a week after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and five Israelis at the entrance of a shopping mall in northern Israeli coastal city of Netanya, just 10 kilometers south of Hadera.
It further strained Israel's emergency rescue services as most of the rescue teams are still working hard on the scene of a building collapse, which happened late Thursday in western Jerusalem, killing at least 26 Israelis and wounding 400.
According to a Lebanese television station, both the Palestinian Islamic resistance Movement Hamas and Islamic Jihad (Holy War) claimed responsibility for the Hadera attack.
Hamas officials said earlier Friday that the groups would launch more bombing attacks at Israeli targets on Friday to mark the first anniversary of Israeli army's withdrawal from south Lebanon under the pressure of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, or Party of God.
Sharon blamed the Palestinian leadership for not only failing to issue a ceasefire order, but keeping encouraging the escalation of the violence.
"We do know for certain that the Palestinian (National) Authority is behind terror activities, is not preventing terror activities, and to my regret, despite an appeal from myself as well as from the president of the United States, Arafat has still not issued an order for a cease fire," Sharon asserted.
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