Israel: people try to put themselves together

During nearly six months without suicide bombings, a degree of normality returned to the streets of Jerusalem and other big cities. On Tuesday that was shattered. And it was a double shock - a bomb attack in Beersheba, a city that has seen nothing like it in the recent years of violence. The Israeli government insists the recent calm was the result of the barrier that is being built in and around the West Bank, one of a number of security measures that has made it more difficult for suicide bombers to penetrate into Israel. Israeli officials have been pointing out that Tuesday's attack happened close to the part of the West Bank where the barrier has not yet been built. The two bombers are believed to have come from the southern West Bank city of Hebron. So the Israeli government says the attack shows the need to speed up the building of the barrier, informs BBC News. Bloomberg publishes that suicide bombers blew up two Israeli buses in the southern city of Beersheba, killing themselves and leaving at least 12 people dead and 84 injured, Israel's rescue service said. The blasts were the first such attacks in five months. ``There were at least 14 bodies, including the two terrorists,'' Yehuda Shoshan, a regional director of the Magen David Adom rescue service, said by telephone from Beersheba. Israel Channel 2 television reported the death toll has reached 15 with as many as 98 people wounded. Hamas, a Palestinian group that opposes a peace settlement with Israel and has bombed Israelis in the past, claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Associated Press reported. Israel blames Hamas for more than 400 killings, and on March 22 the Israeli military killed the Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, 68, in a rocket attack. The bombings in Beersheba, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) south of Tel Aviv, were the first suicide attacks since 11 people were killed at the Israeli port of Ashdod on March 14. Individuals who boarded the vehicles at the city's bus station set off the blasts, Israel Radio reported, citing police investigators. ``We have to fight against terrorism,'' Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told reporters at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in remarks carried by the radio station after the bombings. ``That's our government's policy. That's my policy and our all-out war against terror will continue.'' A pair of Palestinian suicide bombers detonated explosives on two municipal buses in the city of Beersheba Monday, killing at least 16 and wounding dozens in the worst terrorist attack in an Israeli city in almost six months. The twin explosions - the first ever to rock the largest city in southern Israel - left about 90 injured and shattered one of the longest periods of calm inside Israel since the start of the four-year cycle of violence. Israeli news media reported that a leaflet claiming responsibility for the attack was released by the Hamas military wing in the West Bank city of Hebron, just 30 miles away from Beersheba. But Israeli police officials said shortly after the attack said they were still investigating the origin for the attack, observes the Christian Science Monitor

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