Suicide Bomber Kills 2 Police Officers in Israel

Young Woman Targeted Busy Jerusalem Bus Stop, the Scene of Previous Attacks

Israeli security forces and rescue personnel gather at bus stop in Jerusalem where a Palestinian woman approached a guard post and blew herself up. (Oded Balilty -- AP)

JERUSALEM, Sept. 22 -- A Palestinian woman detonated a bomb as she walked toward a busy bus stop in northeastern Jerusalem during rush hour Wednesday afternoon, killing two Israeli policemen who had asked to search her bag, Israeli police officials said. The woman was also killed and about 16 bystanders were hospitalized with minor injuries, police said.

Israeli authorities credited the two Border Police officers with preventing the bomber from attacking about 40 people standing at the bus stop and hitchhiking point in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood, the scene of seven suicide bombings and shootings since the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict began four years ago.

"No doubt the alertness of the security forces prevented a severe terror attack," said Haim Weingarten, 34, a volunteer for the Zaka rescue service who said he arrived within minutes of the 3:50 p.m. bombing. He said he found several arms and legs scattered across the street.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, asserted responsibility for the attack in telephone calls to news services. The group identified the bomber as Zainab Abu Salem, 19, a resident of the Askar refugee camp near the city of Nablus in the West Bank.

The suicide bombing was the second in Israel in the past month after a five-month hiatus in such major attacks. On Aug. 31, two suicide bombers blew up two commuter buses within 20 seconds of each other in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, killing 16 people and both bombers.

The intersection at French Hill, which is a gathering spot for Jewish settlers traveling between Jerusalem and settlements in the West Bank, has been heavily fortified with fencing, sidewalk barriers, police guard booths and surveillance cameras. Police and witnesses said a fence dividing a wide boulevard forced the bomber toward a guard booth before she could reach the first bus stop, about 35 yards away.

Two Border Patrol officers, identified as Mamoya Tahio, 20, and Menashe Komemi, 19, called out to a young woman who was wearing a traditional Palestinian head scarf and ankle-length robe as she approached their small glass-and-metal booth, according to Gil Kleiman, spokesman for the Israeli national police. He said it was not clear whether the officers were suspicious of the woman or were conducting a routine check.

Haim Brandt, 18, a religious student clad in a fringed prayer shawl and wearing long, curled side locks, said he had just finished reading the death notices posted on the French Hill bus stop bulletin board when he "turned around and saw a young Arab girl . . . heading toward the border policemen's station.

"She exploded right next to them," Brandt said as he sat on a bed at the Mount Scopus Hadassah Hospital, where he was being treated for shock. "It was a huge fireball -- yellow and red -- and everyone ran every which way."

Benayahu Cohen, 18, who was trying to hitch a ride to the religious school he attends in Homesh, a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, said he also spotted the bomber near the police kiosk just before the explosion.

"She was young and looked just like a regular Arab schoolgirl, carrying her bag," he said, pieces of bloody gauze covering shrapnel wounds in his stomach. "She looked totally normal, like any other girl."

The bombing occurred with the Palestinian uprising about to enter its fifth year. About 2,760 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the conflict, and Palestinian guerrillas and suicide bombers have killed 998 Israelis and foreigners.

Since the Beersheba attack, Israeli forces have conducted major operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in what the military described as efforts to target militants.

The incursions and attacks have left 46 Palestinians dead, many of them civilians. In the past week, Israeli forces have killed 24 Palestinians -- the highest one-week death toll in two months, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, announced Wednesday that the planned evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip would begin next summer and take about three months to complete. Over the past several months Sharon has announced several different dates and timelines for the pullout, which is opposed by pro-settlement groups and many members of his own Likud Party.

Several hours after Wednesday's bombing, about two dozen members of Jewish groups opposed to the Gaza plan protested at the French Hill intersection, calling for Sharon's resignation and holding signs that read, "PM Sharon go home. You're a traitor!"

Israeli officials said Wednesday's bombing underscored the need to continue constructing a barrier that would separate parts of the West Bank from Israel. "This comes to remind the government of Israel that so long as it does not finish the fence, we will still be in danger," Uri Lupolianski, mayor of Jerusalem and a member of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, said as he toured the bombing site.

The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, condemned the attack in a statement released by his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Such acts are against our national interest and . . . give Israel an excuse to continue with its assassination, incursions, targeting Palestinian civilians, settlement activities and building the annexation wall," the statement said.

Palestinian officials have said they consider the barrier project an effort by Israel to take control of more Palestinian territory.

Researchers Hillary Claussen and Samuel Sockol contributed to this report.