Seven killed as bomb shatters Hebrew University cafeteria

JERUSALEM -- A bomb hidden in a bag ripped through a busy cafeteria at Hebrew University Wednesday, killing seven people, including three Americans, in an attack that shattered the peace in one of the few places where young Jews and Arabs still mixed freely.

More than 80 people were also wounded in the second bombing to hit Jerusalem in two days.

Media reports said two of the dead were Israelis and the others were foreign nationals. The injured included Jews and Arabs, but no overall breakdown was available.

Three Americans were killed in the blast and four were injured, State Department spokeswoman Lynn Cassel said in Washington. Their names were wtihheld pending notification of their families.

A senior U.S. official said in Washington three Americans were killed and four were among the wounded. U.S. officials did not release the names of the American casualties.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing and said it was revenge for Israel's air raid last week on Gaza City that killed the organization's military chief, Salah Shehadeh, and 14 civilians, including nine children.

Israel's Security Cabinet, meeting after Wednesday's blast, decided Israel would retaliate within hours, Israel Radio said. The report could not be independently confirmed.

President Bush condemned the bombing "in the strongest possible terms," saying it was perpetrated by "killers who hate the thought of peace."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also condemned the attack and again urged Israelis and Palestinians "to end the cycle of violence, revenge and retaliation."

The lunchtime blast in the university's Frank Sinatra International Student Center struck a popular student hangout at a school that has been an island of tolerance throughout the nearly two years of Mideast fighting.

Alastair Goldrein, 19, from Liverpool, England, said he was on his way to lunch when the explosion rocked the building.

"I ran in, there were people lying around wailing, covered in blood,"he said. "Scenes that are indescribable, clothes and flesh torn apart."

The bag with the bomb was placed on a table in the center of the cafeteria, police said. The blast brought down part of the ceiling and blew out windows.

The university said 23,000 students attend the school, about 5,000 of them Arabs and 1,500 from abroad.

Hamas, which has carried out the largest number of Palestinian bombings, claimed responsibility for the bombing during a rally in Gaza City that drew some 10,000 supporters into the streets following evening prayers in the mosques.