JERUSALEM: Suspected Islamic bombers killed at least 27 persons and wounded 100 in two bomb attacks in Israel.
Security sources said the bombings were in revenge for the killing of Hamas bomb maker Yahya Ayyash last month. An anonymous caller to Israel Radio’s Arabic service said the Qassam military wing of Hamas was responsible for the attacks.
Police said 20 persons were killed in a bomb blast in a crowded commuter bus in Central Jerusalem. A second explosion came 50 minutes later in the Southern city of Ashkelon, which killed two persons and injured 14 near a soldiers” hitchhiking station, police said.
Hamas and another group Islamic Jihad have killed nearly 80 persons in suicide bombings since Peres’s predecessor, Mr, Yi Rabin, made peace with the PLO IN 1993.
Body littered Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road alter the explosion tore apart the bus at 6:45 a.m. A taxi van, cars and another bus which had stopped alongside the bus at traffic lights were also damaged.
Dazed bystanders wept, as Rabbis collected body parts strewn over a wide area.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 28, 1996
