Hamas promise more attacks

The Islamic terrorist group Hamas has promised more attacks after seven people were killed, including five Americans, by a bomb that ripped apart a university cafeteria in Jerusalem yesterday.

The militant organisation said the bombing was in revenge for an Israeli air strike last week that killed one of their top leaders and 14 others, including nine children.

About 10,000 Palestinians celebrated on the streets of Gaza yesterday as news of the bombing spread. Hamas is based in Gaza.

“This operation today is a part of a series of operations we will launch from everywhere in Palestine,” a masked Hamas militant, dressed in a green military uniform, said over a loudspeaker.

At his request, the entire crowd knelt to pray that future Hamas attacks “would succeed against the enemy of God”.

The cafe in the Frank Sinatra International Student Centre at the Hebrew University’s Mt Scopus campus was a popular gathering point for Jewish, Arab and foreign students.

Unlike other recent Palestinian attacks, the blast was not a suicide bombing, said Jerusalem police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo.

“The bomb was in a bag that was planted on a table in the centre of the restaurant,” she said.

It was detonated by a mobile phone used as a remote control, an Israeli official said. Two Israelis were killed along with the Americans. More than 80 people were wounded.

The blast shattered not only the cafe, but also the concept that the university was one of the few places where Jews and Arabs could still mingle freely.

Police detained a number of Arab employees of the university on suspicion of having helped the bomber, a police official said.

The Palestinian Authority “absolutely” condemned the attack, but added that it “considers Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responsible for this cycle of terror”.

Sharon’s government blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

“Israel is fighting a pitched battle against terror, and for the right to walk down the street, take a bus or sit in a cafeteria without the fear of being decimated by Palestinian terrorism,” said David Baker, a Sharon aide.

In Washington, US President George Bush condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms” and demanded the Palestinian Authority get rid of “officials who have not been able to deliver”.

And the violence continued today, with police saying an Israeli was shot dead by gunmen near the West Bank Palestinian town of Tulkarem.

Yesterday’s attack came as Israel’s Security Cabinet considered ways to stop or at least hinder suicide bombers, who have carried out most deadly attacks on Israeli citizens.

Measures discussed included expelling relatives of bombers from the West Bank to Gaza, or destroying their houses.

In the town of Beit Jalla, next to Bethlehem, the Israeli military said it had destroyed the family house of Hazem Yusuf, who carried out a suicide bombing attack on Tuesday in Jerusalem that wounded seven Israelis.

Military sources said the destruction was a deterrent measure to show that such actions have a price.

And in Jenin, Israeli troops today demolished the home of an Islamic Jihad activist, Muhammed Abu Tabikh, 25, who was arrested earlier this week, residents said. The army said it was checking the report.

In Gaza today, a bomb went off as an Israeli bus passed near the Jewish settlement of Morag, the army said. One person was treated for shock.

Israeli troops control seven of the eight main Palestinian centres in the West Bank, moving in after back-to-back suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem on June 18-19.

The university bombing and a suicide attack the day before were the first bombings in Jerusalem since then.