THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220290
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM STAFF, WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: JERUSALEM LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
An Islamic militant, possibly a woman, set off a suicide bomb Monday that tore through two crowded Israeli commuter buses headed for Hebrew University. The blast shredded one bus into a twisted metal cobweb and killed five people, including an American tourist.
The police investigation focused on two mutilated and unidentified bodies, one male and one female. Police Chief Arieh Amit said the condition of the woman's body suggested she could have been holding the TNT bomb.
The Muslim militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the blast, which injured more than 100 people during the morning rush hour in Jerusalem and forced the suspension of Israel-PLO talks on expanding Palestinian self-rule.
One Hampton Roads expert found the prospect that the bomber may have been a woman troubling.
Steve Yetiv, an assistant professor of political science at Old Dominion University, said Monday that the possibility raises new questions and concerns for those pursuing the rocky road toward a comprehensive Mideast peace.
``It's too soon to reach any conclusions about whether this is elevating the conflict to new heights,'' Yetiv said. ``But a woman doesn't do something like that without some support. It's not ad hoc. We can't just write it off as an anomaly.''
Yetiv, a native of Israel who writes frequently on Mideast issues, pointed out that Palestinian women are among the most educated women in the Arab world - a fact that would be consistent with a female suicide bomber.
``It's a myth that the Islamic fundamentalists are all emotional and irrational,'' he said. ``An act like this smacks of irrationality, because somebody is giving up their life. But the hotbeds of fundamentalism are the universities.''
If investigators do conclude that the bomber was a woman, Yetiv said, it will complicate the job of Israeli security forces, who until now have focused their efforts almost exclusively on men.
But for the Israeli population as a whole, he added, ``it's somewhat immaterial who's killing them.''
Three of the dead were identified as Joan Davenny, a Hebrew school teacher from Woodbridge, Conn.; Rivka Cohen, a 26-year-old Israeli; and Noam Eizenman, an Israeli policeman. Davenny had been gathering material for her class on the history of Israel.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the West Bank and Gaza Strip sealed, barring Palestinians from traveling to Israel.
Rabin said the suspended talks would resume after the Israeli victims' funerals, which, according to Jewish tradition, must be held as quickly as possible. Cohen was buried Monday night.
``The time has come to distinguish who are the murderers among the Palestinians and who are those who wish to find a political solution,'' Rabin said.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the suspension of peace talks with the PLO would not delay an agreement, which negotiators have said they hope to reach by early September.
But the break in talks was certain to make it more difficult to resolve differences between the two sides by next month. It was the latest in a series of postponements that have plagued efforts to reach agreement on the second phase of Palestinian autonomy. The delays also limit the extent to which a troop withdrawal can be implemented before Israeli elections, scheduled for November 1996.
Public anger at the bombing also will make it more difficult for Rabin to make concessions to the Palestinians.
Hundreds of people protested near the bombing site immediately after the blast and again Monday night, yelling, ``Rabin is a murderer!'' and ``Rabin is a traitor!''
PLO chief Yasser Arafat denounced the bombing and accused Iran of funding Islamic extremists in the West Bank and Gaza.
``I will chop off every hand that gets money from outside the Palestinian arena, or orders from Iran or (elsewhere),'' he said.
A statement issued from President Clinton's vacation headquarters in Jackson Hole, Wyo., sent ``heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of today's bombing.''
The bomb exploded in the back of a No. 26 bus in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol as it was passing another bus during morning rush hour traffic. The explosion set fire to the second bus and blew out its windows.
Both buses were headed for Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus, passing police headquarters along the way, and many of the passengers were students and policemen riding to work.
It was the second bus bombing in less than a month and the seventh terrorist attack in the past year and a half by Islamic militants opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian accords.
Police were investigating whether the unidentified woman killed in the blast was Alia Abu Ghalya, 20, from the West Bank village of Bethany. Family members told The Associated Press that she left home secretly in the middle of the night Sunday and did not return.
The Hamas leaflet claiming responsibility said the bomber would remain anonymous, but it used the masculine form in referring to its ``martyr.''
In the leaflet, Hamas also claimed responsibility for the first time for a July 24 bomb attack in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan that killed six Israelis and the bomber.
The Hamas leaflet said the bombing was to mark the anniversary of the 1969 burning of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest site. The fire was set by Michael Denis William Rohen of Australia, a member of a Christian sect called the Church of God. Rohen was judged insane and deported.
The Hamas statement was signed by ``students of the Engineer Yahya Ayyash'' in the Izzedine al-Qassam Unit, the military wing of the movement. Ayyash, better known as ``the Engineer,'' is the Hamas leader most wanted by the Israeli military. by CNB