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Families start burying their dead after bus attack
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Funerals will continue Thursday for the victims of a transit bus driven by a Palestinian that plowed into a bus stop near Tel Aviv Wednesday morning that claimed eight lives.
Seven of the dead were Israeli soldiers -- four women and three men. The eighth victim was a female civilian. At least 20 people were injured. Grieving families began burying their dead late Wednesday, and funerals for the remaining six victims were planned for Thursday. In other violence, Palestinian gunmen shot and wounded a Jewish settler near Hebron late Wednesday, three roadside bombs exploded, one on a road near Jerusalem, and a hand grenade was thrown at Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza. No-one was injured. After the bus attack, security forces pursued the bus as the driver fled the scene south of Tel Aviv, eventually shooting and injuring him some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. He was taken into custody after he crashed into a large truck. Israeli officials angrily denounced the attack and slapped immediate closures on Palestinian territories, further tightening restrictions the Palestinians say are strangling them and worsening an already deplorable situation. Israeli officials said the attack may have been in retaliation for an Israeli military operation on Tuesday that killed Massoud Ayyad, a man the Israelis said had planned and carried out several terrorist attacks. The Palestinians denied Ayyad had done so. Israel said that Ayyad, who died when Israeli helicopter gunships attacked his car, was a Hezbollah militant who had planned and carried out attacks on Israelis. The Palestinians denied that Massoud, a member of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's bodyguard unit, had any ties to the pro-Iranian Hezbollah organization or had participated in any attacks against Israelis. Arafat said the problem was what he called "Israel's military escalation, which has a direct effect on the feelings of all the Palestinian people." Driver's Israeli work permit just renewedArafat said he understood the incident to be a road accident and that the driver had been arrested and the incident was under investigation. "Our stand is very firm and clear: We are against all sorts of escalation, all sorts of terror," he said at a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, where he was meeting with Turkish officials. "Whatever the cause, of course we are against the killing of people in whatever capacity." Arafat's Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Ehud Barak -- who lost an election last week to hard-line Likud leader Ariel Sharon and will soon hand over the reins of Israeli government to his rival -- said Israel would do everything necessary to stop such "abominable" crimes and punish those responsible for them. Israel had sealed the Palestinian areas for most of the past five months, since the latest Palestinian uprising began, but in recent weeks had eased the closure slightly, allowing several thousand Palestinian workers to return to jobs in Israel. The driver, identified as 35-year-old Khalil Abu Olbeh, had driven for Egged bus company for five years, ferrying Palestinian workers between Israel and Gaza. He was given clearance to return to his job in Israel just two weeks ago. Palestinians call for loosening of restrictionsIn the wake of Wednesday's deaths, Israeli and Palestinian officials continued a clash of words that has characterized the conflict between them nearly as much as the deadly violence. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Ziad Abu Zayyad said closures and restrictions on Palestinians should be loosened, not tightened, if Israeli is serious about lessening the violence. "What the Israelis are doing is they are pushing everyone toward being more extreme and they (are) legitimizing extremism by what they are doing against our people," Zayyad said. "They are occupying us, they are controlling our lives. They can make our lives easier, and they can make it worse," he said. "What they are doing now, they are taking every possible measure in order to make our life a hell." Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh called Wednesday's attack "a murderous attack" aimed at destroying "all chances of resumed Israel-Palestinian dialogue." Conciliatory hintsBut both sides appeared to gingerly walk a thin line between hard-line positions and conciliation. Zayyad said that the Palestinians "urge people to control themselves, to restrain themselves, to try to be quiet." And Sneh agreed that Palestinians must ultimately be allowed to work inside Israel, but he said his government must put the safety and security of Israeli citizens ahead of the rights of Palestinians. "I don't think in the long run it is in our favor to keep the Gaza Strip tightly closed with people starving inside," Sneh said. "Our policy to allow them to work in Israel after a screening, to earn money -- I think it is a correct policy. But the procedures have to be reviewed." Wednesday's deaths raised the total killed in the clashes, which began on September 28, to 437, 357 of them Palestinians, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Israeli officials said that 67 Israelis Jews have been killed, along with 13 Israeli Arabs. CNN Correspondent Jerrold Kessel and Anchor Ralitsa Vassileva, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
Air attack amid Mideast coalition hope RELATED SITES:
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