- At least 14 people were killed and over 40 injured when
a car bomb blew up next to an Egged bus at 4:23 P.M. Monday not far from
the coastal city of Hadera.
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- Five people were in serious condition and six sustained
moderate wounds. A woman who was critically wounded died of her injuries
several hours after the blast.
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- The injured were taken to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
in Hadera and Haemek Hospital in Afula.
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- The army said 15 of the wounded were soldiers, but could
not say if military personnel were among the dead.
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- "As far as we know at this time, a car moved alongside
the bus and exploded," police spokesman Haim Bolimovski told Israel
television. Police said that two suicide bombers drove a jeep carrying
more than 100 kilograms of explosives close to the bus as it was waiting
at a bus stop. Most of the wounded were seated in the back section of the
bus.
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- Islamic Jihad claims blast
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- The military wing of Islamic Jihad, Al Quds Bring out
for potential car bombs. "From the first reports reaching me, there
was such a (security) vehicle dozens of meters from the car bomb,"
he said.
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- The bus caught fire in the explosion, which prevented
police and rescue workers from approaching the vehicle immediately. Firefighters
later extinguished the blaze, which completely destroyed the bus.
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- Haim Avraham, driver of the bus told Israel Radio that
the explosion "turned the bus 90 degrees and threw me from my seat...I
didn't know what was happening."
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- An eye-witness to the bombing told Israel Radio: "I
was 60 meters from the bus station... and I heard an explosion. The bus
was completely shattered. I saw the bus go up in flames. It was completely
wrecked."
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- "I was driving in front of the bus and heard a blast
and it all went up in flames," a witness who gave his name as Avi
told the radio. "Drivers were terrified but continued driving."
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- Following the attack, police erected road blocks in Wadi
Ara and around the citing to Reuters Television in Luxembourg shortly after
the blast, Peres said: "We know it may be impossible to prevent all
acts of terror, but the least we expect is that the Palestinians really
show an effort to stop it even if they did not organise it."
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- "We don't feel the Palestinians...(are using) the
forces available to them, which are 30,000 or 40,000 policemen, in at least
an attempt to prevent it...Not only people are being killed, but the peace
process is being endangered," he said.
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- Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat also condemned
the bombing. "You know that the decision of the Palestinian leadership
is that it is opposed to attacks against Palestinian and Israeli civilians,"
Arafat told reporters outside his headquarters in the West Bank city of
Ramallah. "We reject such attacks against civilians."
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