2 killed by suicide bomber at station
Five reportedly die in attack of outpost
JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian teenager blew herself up at a busy Jerusalem bus station yesterday, killing two Israeli policemen who stopped her for a security check and wounding 16 bystanders in an attack that evaded Israel's clampdown on the West Bank for the Jewish holidays.
Hours later, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile in a Gaza refugee camp, wounding 12 people, Palestinians said.
The violence continued this morning. Two armed Palestinians infiltrated an Israeli army outpost in a Gaza Strip settlement, killing at least three Israelis in a fierce gun battle before being shot dead, Israeli media reported. Two other Israelis were wounded, one critically, the website of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported. The army refused to confirm the report of dead.
In yesterday's suicide bombing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group with ties to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.
The blast at a busy intersection in the French Hill neighborhood of northern Jerusalem destroyed a nearby police post, leaving shards of glass in the road and the smell of burning rubber wafting in the air.
The Al Aqsa brigades identified the bomber as Zainab Abu Salem, 19, from the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.
A group member in Nablus said on condition of anonymity that Salem volunteered for a suicide attack, saying she wanted to avenge Palestinian militants killed recently by Israeli troops in Nablus.
''She said that if we refused, she would attack an army post with a knife," the Al Aqsa member said. ''So we organized quickly."
Her father, Ali Abu Salem, 48, collapsed, and his wife, Sahar, wailed at the news of their daughter's attack.
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Police said two border guards at the bus stop spotted the young woman carrying a bag and asked her to open it. She refused, then detonated as much as 11 pounds of explosives inside.
''I just heard this loud explosion and people started yelling, 'Terrorist! Terrorist!,' " said Freda Amsalem, 40, from the nearby West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim.
Amsalem was not injured.
The bombing came two days before the holiest day on the Jewish calendar -- the fast of Yom Kippur -- and at a time of heightened police presence nationwide.
It was the first suicide bombing in Jerusalem since Feb. 22, when eight passengers were killed in a bus attack. Roadblocks surround the city, and armed security guards check customers at malls and restaurants.
Three weeks ago, two Hamas bombers blew themselves up in southern Beersheba, killing 16 Israelis.
''It was a grave attack, something which obliges us to continue fighting terrorism as we have in the past," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Israel TV after yesterday's attack.
Saeb Erekat, Palestinian Cabinet minister, condemned yesterday's attack, saying Palestinians oppose all violence targeting civilians. 