Suicide bomber attacks bus stop in Jerusalem, kills at least 7

Associated Press WriterJERUSALEM (AP) -- A suicide bomber jumped out of a car, dashed past two policemen and ran to a bus stop before blowing himself up and killing at least seven other people Wednesday evening, according to police and rescue workers. More than 35 people were wounded.

The blast in northern Jerusalem came hours after an Israeli announcement it would gradually reoccupy Palestinian areas until terrorism stops. The Israeli decision, seen by some as another step toward toppling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority, was a response to a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday in which 19 Israelis were killed.

President Bush decided to hold off revealing his plan for Palestinian statehood. Administration officials said a presidential announcement at this sensitive stage in the Arab-Israeli conflict would be unlikely to have a positive impact.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's attack. Hamas claimed credit for Tuesday's explosion.

In one of his strongest condemnations ever, Pope John Paul II decried Tuesday's attack, saying "those who plot and plan such barbarous attacks will have to answer before God."

Earlier Wednesday, dozens of prominent Palestinians made an unprecedented appeal to Islamic extremist groups to stop attacks on Israeli civilians.

In the latest attack, the bomber emerged from a red Audi car, dashed to a covered bus stop and set off the blast, according to a police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The car sped away, disappearing into Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the source added.

The explosion in the French Hill neighborhood blew out the back and the sides of the shelter, leaving just a concrete bench and the roof. An arm and a leg were among the body parts scattered on the street. A baby carriage was overturned, and rescue workers covered it with a black plastic bag.

Seven people and the bomber were killed, said Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy. More than 35 were wounded, several critically, rescue workers told army radio. Among the injured was an officer who was chasing the bomber, Levy said.

The blast occurred in a part of the city that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, and which Palestinians claim for a future state.

The Israeli decision to recapture Palestinian territory came after late-night consultations between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his coalition partners.

The announcement represented a major policy change and was made as Israeli troops entered three West Bank towns from which dozens of terror attacks have been launched.

In one area -- near the town of Jenin and the adjacent refugee camp -- troops set up an encampment of mobile homes and brought in water tanks, apparently preparing for an extended stay.

"Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing Palestinian Authority territory," Sharon's office announced. "These areas will be held as long as terror continues. Additional acts of terror will lead to the taking of additional areas."

Aides to Arafat said Israel's new policy would only cause further bloodshed, and push militias to carry out more attacks. Ultimately, Israel seeks to replace the Palestinian Authority with Israeli civil administration, aide Saeb Erekat said.

Just how far Israel would go in retaking Palestinian territory wasn't clear. Before the Palestinians were granted full or partial authority over areas through the interim peace accords of the mid-1990s, Israel oversaw all aspects of daily life. Soldiers patrolled all towns, cities and villages, frequently imposing curfews that could close schools and offices for days or weeks.

Arafat, in a meeting with U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, stressed that Israel's new policy "will sabotage international efforts to save the peace process," according to Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh.

Legislator Hanan Ashrawi and the Palestinians' senior Jerusalem official, Sari Nusseibeh, were among dozens of prominent Palestinians to sign a full-page newspaper ad urging groups behind deadly assaults on Israeli civilians to "stop sending our young people to carry out such attacks."

"We see no results in such attacks, but a deepening of the hatred between both peoples and a deepening of the gap between us," the ad in Al Quds newspaper said.

It urged all Palestinians who support such a call to sign on to it.

Palestinian pollsters have found that a majority of Palestinians support suicide bombings.

Late Tuesday, dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles moved into the West Bank town of Jenin and the adjacent refugee camp, both strongholds of Palestinian militias. The Jenin camp was the scene of the fiercest clashes in Israel's recent six-week military offensive, and both the town and the camp have been raided repeatedly by Israeli troops in the past 21 months of fighting.

Residents said Israeli troops set up mobile homes just west of town, took over a school in the refugee camp, forcing open doors with sledgehammers, and searched apartment buildings. Hundreds of men in the camp, ages 15 to 45, were being rounded up and taken to the school, then bused in handcuffs and blindfolds to an Israeli military base just outside Jenin, witnesses said.

The Israeli military said troops took over commanding positions in the town, declared a curfew and made arrests. They blasted their way into the administrative offices of Al Razi hospital, run by an Islamic charity affiliated with Hamas, and blew up a safe, according to hospital director Ali Jabareen.

Israeli troops also briefly raided the West Bank city of Nablus and arrested three suspects. Troops also entered Qalqiliya, just inside the West Bank, declared a curfew and searched for terror suspects, the military said.