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Palestinian National Authority Blasts Jerusalem Shooting Attack
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Sunday evening blasted the shooting attack on an Israeli civil bus in Jerusalem which left two Israelis dead and dozens of others wounded.
"The Palestinian leadership condemns in the strongest terms the shooting attack against the Israeli bus in Jerusalem which led to many casualties," the PNA said in a statement issued in Gaza City.
The PNA statement came after a Palestinian gunman opened fire late Sunday at an Israeli bus in northern Jerusalem, killing two Israelis and wounding 40 others, five of them seriously.
The Palestinian gunman, a 34-year-old Islamic Jihad member from the West Bank city of Hebron, was also shot dead by Israeli police.
The PNA statement, while anticipating possible retaliation from the Israeli military, vowed to bring perpetrators to justice to stabilize the situation.
"The Palestinian leadership believes that the operation will be exploited by the Israeli government as a pretext to continue the aggressions, closures and intrusions against the Palestinian liberated territories," said the statement.
Still, "the leadership issued strict instructions to the security organs to arrest the perpetrators of the attack and bring them to justice," it added.
Meanwhile, the PNA held the Israeli government responsible for the worsening of the situation, saying it was resulted from the Israeli intrusions into the Palestinian territories, the policy of "targeted killing" and missile attacks.
The PNA urged the international community, especially the U.N. Security Council, the European Union, the United States, Russia, as well as the non-aligned countries, to back a Security Council draft resolution on the withdrawal of the Israeli armed forces from
Palestinian-controlled areas.
It also renewed call for the deployment of international observers to the Palestinian territories.
The move is aimed at strengthening the ceasefire accords and putting an end to the Israeli aggressions, the statement noted.
The PNA repeated its readiness to take part very seriously in the international efforts to ease the tensions in the Palestinian territories and implement the Tenet understandings, the Mitchell report and the U.N. resolutions as well as the accords signed with Israel.
At Least 15 Injured in Shooting Attack in Northern Jerusalem At least 15 people were injured, three of them seriously, Sunday afternoon when one or more gunmen opened fire on a bus at the French Hill Junction in north Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported.
Police forces and ambulances arrived at the scene after the shooting incident. Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said there were "many injured," and that "between one and three terrorists" had opened fire on the Egged Bus No. 25.
Levy added that Israeli soldiers returned fire and killed one gunman at the scene.
The radio report said that there were some 40 people travelling on the bus at the time of the attack.
"We were travelling on Bus No. 25 to Jerusalem. Suddenly they shot at us. We saw the terrorist shooting. He kept shooting. He didn't stop," one passenger on the bus was quoted as saying.
According to a report by a Bethlehem television, a person claimed to represent the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has claimed responsibility for the shooting.
There have been several attacks at the French Hill junction this year. On February 22, an Israeli was shot and wounded by a Palestinian gunman. On March 27, a suicide bomber from the Hamas blew himself up at the junction, injuring some 30 people.
Israel to Withdraw From Kalkilya Despite Shooting in Jerusalem Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer has decided to withdraw Israeli troops from the West Bank city of Kalkilya on Sunday evening despite the latest fatal shooting in Jerusalem.
The defense chief made the decision after consultations with the political and security echelons.
On Sunday afternoon, a Palestinian gunman launched a shooting attack in northern Jerusalem, leaving two Israelis dead and more than 40 injured before being shot dead himself by Israeli police.
Ben-Eliezer decided to go ahead with the plan he told the weekly cabinet meeting earlier in the day that the Israeli troops would pull out of Kalkilya soon, because the troop presence in Area A under full Palestinian control had accomplished its objectives.
The minister said that the army operation has led to tensions among the upper echelons of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), as well as dissatisfaction with PNA Chairman Yasser Arafat among senior Palestinian officials.
The Israeli army troops are yet to be moved out of five Palestinian cities of Jenin, Tul Karm, Ramallah, Nablus and Kalkilya, which were reoccupied after Israeli Tourism Minister
Rehavam Ze'evi was assassinated on October 17.
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