- (AFP) -- The Israeli army has been ordered to "completely
wipe out" the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, army radio
reported, a day after a suicide bomber killed 16 people on a Jerusalem
bus.
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- The order, which directs the military to use "whatever
means necessary," was issued following a meeting of Defense Minister
Shaul Mofaz with the army's top command shortly after the attack.
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- Everyone, "from the lowliest member to Sheikh Ahmad
Yassin," a Hamas founder and its spiritual guide, is a legitimate
target, the report said.
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- Emphasising the move Israeli Internal Security Minister
Tzachi Hanegbi warned Hamas leaders Thursday that not one of them was safe.
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- "Hamas leaders have no immunity, especially when
this organisation is doing everything it can to scuttle the political process,"
Hanegbi told army radio.
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- The hawkish minister was answering a question on whether
Israel would consider targeting Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who is blind and confined
to a wheelchair.
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- US-sponsored peace hopes were left in tatters after the
Palestinian suicide bomb from Hamas ripped through a Jerusalem bus on Wednesday,
killing 16 people plus the bomber.
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- An hour later Israeli attack helicopters rained missiles
on a car in Gaza City, killing seven people, including two members of the
military wing of Hamas, Palestinian sources said.
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- Then Israeli attack helicopters flew over Gaza overnight,
with one firing two rockets, killing two members of Hamas in their car,
Palestinian medical officials said.
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- The incident, involving members of the Ezzedin al-Qassam
Brigades, Hamas' armed branch, took place in Gaza's Zeitoun district, witnesses
said..
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- The tit-for-tat carnage came a day after a failed Israeli
attempt to kill Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, the political leader of Hamas,
and put a new nail in prospects for negotiating a ceasefire.
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- The Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility
for the mid-afternoon suicide bombing that gutted a bus on a bustling street
in central-west Jerusalem.
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- Israeli television said the bomber, disguised as an ultra-Orthodox
Jew, stepped on the number 14 bus at the Mahane Yehuda market on Jaffa
street and set off an explosive device filled with bolts and nails.
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- "I saw a little girl crying for help and tried to
pull her out of the bus. But then I saw a woman who had been turned into
a human torch and I tried to put out the flames with an extinguisher,"
said Avi Failayer, whose hair salon lies just 20 metres (yards) down the
street from the blast site.
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- "Two old men still sat on their chairs at the front
of the bus, completely charred," he said, swallowing his tears after
the worst suicide attack since 18 people died on a bus in Haifa on March
5.
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- The street, west Jerusalem's main thoroughfare, has been
hit by several Palestinian suicide attacks since the start of the intifada,
or uprising, against Israel in September 2000.
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- Thirteen of the victims were killed on the spot while
three more died of their wounds in hospital or on their way there, medical
and police sources said. Scores of people were wounded, including four
in critical condition.
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- Hamas published a statement on its website claiming responsibility
for the attack, while a spokesman for the group said the bombing showed
Palestinian groups could strike "when and where" they wanted.
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- The bomber's family identified him as an 18-year-old
from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
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- A short while later, seven Palestinians, including two
members of Hamas' armed wing, were killed when two Israeli Apache helicopters
attacked a car in Gaza City's eastern Shajayah neighborhood, Palestinian
medical and security sources said.
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- They said two members of the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades,
Massud Tito and Soheil Abu Nahel, were among those killed. Two women were
also killed and some 20 people wounded.
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- Israeli military sources said Tito was the "major
figure" in Hamas' manufacturing of Qassam rockets and that Abu Nahel
was a top bombmaker and a bodyguard for the movement's spiritual leader,
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.
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- On Wednesday evening there was a firefight between Palestinians
and Israeli troops in tanks in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip,
a Palestinian security source said.
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- A third Palestinian died early Thursday of his wounds
following the attack on Rantissi, in which two died on the spot.
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- The attacks left all sides scrambling to patch up efforts
to implement an international "roadmap" for peace providing for
confidence-building measures ahead of establishment of a Palestinian state
in 2005.
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- The process was formally launched at a summit last week
in Jordan of US President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas.
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- Bush denounced the suicide bombing Wednesday in a brief
statement to reporters and urged "all of the free world" to use
"every ounce of their power" to prevent such attacks in the future.
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- He earlier had delivered a milder, but rare rebuke to
Israel, saying he was "troubled" by the helicopter gunship attack
Tuesday on Rantissi and a later raid in Gaza which killed another three
people.
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- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in an unprecedented
move for him, condemned the suicide attack as a "terrorist" act
and urged all Palestinian factions to immediately cease military operations
against Israel.
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- Abbas also called for a ceasefire.
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- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as well as European leaders
sharply condemned the Jerusalem attack, but warned against it derailing
the Middle East peace process.
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