Mob stones Jewish extremist to death after bus killings

A JEWISH extremist opened fire inside a bus yesterday, killing four Israeli Arabs before being slain by an angry crowd, police said.

The attack that could be linked to Israel’s upcoming pullout from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

After the attack, the bruised and bloodied body of the gunman lay on the floor of the bus surrounded by stones. Media reports said the gunman may have been stoned to death.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced the shooting as “a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist.”

“This terror incident is a deliberate attempt to harm the relations between the citizens of Israel. Terror between civilians is the most dangerous thing for the future of Israel and its democratic stability,” his office said in a statement.

Israel TV identified the gunman as Eden Tsuberi, 19, from the settlement of Tapuah in the West Bank.

Police spokesperson Eran Weinmeter confirmed the gunman was killed by a mob that attacked the bus. At least nine Israeli Arabs were wounded in the initial burst of gunfire.

Security officials have been warning for months that Jewish extremists, desperate in their attempts to sabotage Israel’s withdrawal, might attack Arabs to deflect Israeli forces away from the removal of settlers.

“This cannot be disconnected from the pullout,” retired army General Yom-Tov Samia said.

The attacker boarded a bus in the northern Israeli Arab town of Shfaram and opened fire.

Police said the bearded gunman wore a skullcap, identifying him as an Orthodox Jew, and he was dressed in an Israeli army uniform. Mohammed Barakeh, an Arab member of parliament, told Channel 10 from the scene that all the dead were Arabs.

“The victims are all residents of Shfaram, and today this town is mourning,” he said.

A witness identified only as Saed told Channel 10 that he was in a nearby house when the shooting erupted.

“I saw the driver and two female passengers were killed,” he said.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra called it a “terrible terror attack” and appealed for calm.

Tapuah is one of the most extreme Jewish settlements, dominated by followers of US-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, who believed in expelling Arabs from Israel and the West Bank.

Kahane was assassinated in New York in 1990. Israel TV said Tsuberi was an army deserter who grew up in the Israeli city of Rishon Letzion and recently moved to the settlement.

Israeli-Arab members of parliament called the shooting a “terror attack” by Jewish extremists.

There have been several cases of Jewish extremists attacking Arabs, but rarely inside Israel. In 1990, during the first Palestinian uprising, an Israeli opened fire at a bus stop, killing seven Palestinians.

Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Jewish settler, entered a holy site in the West Bank city of Hebron in 1994 and opened fire on Muslim worshippers, killing 29.

Yesterday, opponents of Israel’s withdrawal ended their second mass protest after police blocked their plan to march into the Gaza Strip to reinforce the settlements.

A few hundred protesters stayed in the town of Ofakim, Bentsi Lieberman, head of the settlers’ council, who denounced the shooting.

“Murder is murder is murder, and there can be no other response but to denounce it completely and express revulsion,” he said.