Campus mourns lost lives following deadly bombing

JERUSALEM -- The votive candles, placed to remember the dead and wounded, flickered gently in the Thursday afternoon breeze at a spot just outside the bombed-out Hebrew University cafeteria.

Next to them were flowers, some of them wreaths with black bunting draped across them. Students and dignitaries alike came to this spot on the Mount Scopus campus to pay their respects to the seven people killed -- five of them Americans -- and 80 wounded in Wednesday's bombing of the Frank Sinatra International Student Center cafeteria.

U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, himself a former student at Hebrew University, placed a wreath on the spot on behalf of the American people, then clasped his hands and lowered his head for a moment of silence.

"We have grieved with all the people of Israel as they have faced Palestinian terrorism," Kurtzer said. "Now that five American citizens have been killed, our grief is even deeper."

The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it revenge for the Israeli bombing in Gaza last week that killed the leader of its military wing and 14 others, including women and children. It also issued a statement Thursday saying the group would kill 100 Israelis for every one of its leaders who is assassinated.

Then, in something of a surprise, Hamas spokesman Abdelaziz Pantisi apologized for the deaths of any "non-Zionists." He said, however, they shouldn't have been at the cafeteria because he considers the university to be occupied land and a battleground for the Palestinian cause.

But Kurtzer said the group crossed the line when it attacked a place that had become a worldwide symbol of cooperation among Middle East nationalities and religions.

"The terrorist murderers -- those who sent them and those whose action and inaction contributed to this despicable act -- have descended to a new depth of depravity," he said. "They have violated the sanctuary of a university in which Israelis, Arabs, Jews, Muslims and Christians study together. It is not enough that Palestinians and other Arabs have condemned this act of terrorism. It is absolutely imperative that they work actively to stop terrorism immediately."

Five Americans killed

By midday Thursday, officials had released the names of Americans killed in the bombing, including Marla Bennett, 24, of San Diego. She was doing graduate work in Judaic studies at Pardes Institute and Hebrew University and was to have returned to California on Friday.

Among the others killed was Janis Ruth Coulter, 36, an assistant director of graduate studies for the university's Rothberg International School in New York. She had arrived in Jerusalem the day before the bombing, escorting a group of American students. The director of the international school in Jerusalem, Menachem Milson, said he spent much of the morning with her that day in a business meeting.

"After the meeting she went with a colleague to have some lunch," Milson said. "She was a very dear person. It is a great loss to her family and to us."

The other dead Americans were identified as Benjamin Blutstein, 25, of Susquehanna Township, Pa.; David Gritz, 24, of Peru, Mass., who held dual French-American citizenship; and Dina Carter, 37, of Jerusalem. The two slain Israelis, Lavina Shapira, 53, and David Ludovisky, 29, were to be buried Thursday in Jerusalem.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said the bodies of the slain Americans would be flown to the United States late Thursday night.