The latest diplomatic push aimed at ending 32 months of bitter warfare between Israelis and Palestinians, in which over 3,000 people have been killed, appears to be on the verge of being swallowed up by a whirl of tit-for-tat bloodshed which yesterday claimed the lives of 24 Israelis and Palestinians. Peter Hirschberg, in Jerusalem, reports.
A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem yesterday, killing 16. An Israeli helicopters then fired rockets that killed two Hamas militants and six bystanders in Gaza, leaving the US-backed "road map" for peace on the verge of being ripped asunder.
The violence continued late last night when an Israeli helicopter gunship again fired missiles at a target in the Gaza Strip.
The bus bombing was carried out during evening rush-hour by a young man, disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, who boarded a No. 14 bus on Jaffa Street, one of Jerusalem's main arteries, and blew himself up.
Witnesses said they saw bodies hurled through the air. "I saw dead people. Severed hands and fingers lay at my feet. I saw a lot of women covered with blood - their skin was scorched," said Shirli Rafael, a municipal worker.
Hamas, whose leaders have openly declared their intention of wrecking the road map, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out to avenge the failed assassination attempt on Tuesday on one of the most high-profile Hamas figures in Gaza, Mr Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
Less than an hour after the bus attack, Israeli helicopter gunships took to the Gaza skies, firing rockets at a Fiat carrying two members of the military wing of Hamas, whom Israel said were responsible for the firing of rudimentary rockets at towns inside the Jewish state.
Tito Massoud (35) and Soheil Abu Nahel (29) were killed instantly. Six bystanders were also killed in the strike.
Witnesses said body parts were strewn across the area where the attack took place.
"Where is Abu Mazen to come and see?" cried Mr Jamil Hamdia (35) as he carried his injured cousin, aged 11, in a Gaza hospital. He was referring to Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas, who has been criticised by Palestinians for being too conciliatory toward Israel.
A frustrated Mr Bush, who put his reputation on the line when he travelled to the Aqaba peace summit last week, called on those "who want to see peace in the Middle East ... to cut off money to organisations such as Hamas, to isolate those who hate so much that they're willing to kill to stop peace from going forward".
Some 46 people - 23 Palestinians and 23 Israelis - have died since the Aqaba summit last Wednesday.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, who came in for rare criticism from Mr Bush on Tuesday for having ordered the killing of Mr Rantisi, was defiant yesterday.
"We will make no concessions to terror," a government official quoted the Prime Minister as having told his ministers at a meeting held before the suicide bombing. "We made this clear to all the White House officials and to the Palestinians before the Aqaba summit."
After the attack, he said Israel would continue to "pursue" its attackers until they had been "destroyed".
Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat, who has been sidelined by the Americans and the Israelis, yesterday condemned both attacks, and for the first time since the start of the intifada referred to an attack carried out by a Palestinian as a "terrorist" act. He also called for an end to attacks by all sides.
But Mr Rantisi said Hamas would "continue the resistance until we liberate this land, until Sharon realises that this land is for Palestinians, for Muslims".
Israeli politicians argued over what steps to take. Justice Minister Mr Yosef Lapid said the bombing was part of an attempt by Hamas to "destroy the road map", but that abandoning the peace plan would be a victory for "the terrorists".
However Welfare Minister Mr Zevulun Orlev, of the right-wing National Religious Party, which opposes the road map, said "there is no serious intention, on the part of any Palestinian leader, to make peace with Israel".