The
Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing attack, charging Israel's
army would exploit the attack to carry out new deadly raids.
The
Palestinian leadership "strongly condemns the attack which killed
Israeli and Palestinian civilians", said a statement carried by
the official news agency WAFA.
The
Authority rejected "the logic of vengeance against civilians ...
which sullies the reputation of our people with the accusation of
terrorism".
The
attack in Haifa, northern Israel, would serve as "a pretext for
Israel's government and occupation army to step up its deadly campaign
which caused the deaths of 77 Palestinians in February," said the
statement.
The
Palestinian Authority called on the U.N. Security Council and
international community to "intervene immediately to guarantee
peace and the security of the Palestinian and Israeli peoples".
It
also pledged "to exert every effort to enforce the necessary
security arrangements" to prevent such anti-Israeli attacks.
Earlier,
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, in a separate
statement received by AFP, said the Authority condemned "all
attacks against civilians including today's attack in Haifa.
"The
attack will only serve to distract attention from the more than 150
Palestinian civilians killed by Israel over the past two months,"
he said.
He
said the attack would undermine efforts by the Authority to carry out
reforms demanded by Palestinians, Israel and the international
community.
Hamas,
Jihad Say Attack Revenge for Gaza Massacre
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"We
will not raise the white flag in front of the Zionist terror and
we will fight them as long as there is occupation," Rantisi
said
|
The
Palestinian resistance movements Hamas, Jihad stressed the bombing
attack was revenge for recent Israeli raids in Gaza which have killed
numerous civilians.
But
officials from the two main factions, which have together spearheaded
attacks in Israel, stopped short of claiming responsibility for the
bombing in the northern port city.
Abdel
Aziz al-Rantissi, a senior Hamas leader, said Wednesday's attack
"is a response to the Jewish terror that yesterday killed an
85-year-old man and the day before that a pregnant woman."
Israeli
troops on Wednesday shot dead an elderly Palestinian shepherd outside
a Jewish settlement on the edge of Gaza City, while on Monday eight
people, including a pregnant woman and a child, were killed in a raid
on a Gaza refugee camp which also netted a founder of Hamas.
"We
will not raise the white flag in front of the Zionist terror and we
will fight them as long as there is occupation," he said.
Muhammad
al-Hindi of the smaller Islamic Jihad also told AFP that Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's get-tough policy in Gaza was to blame for the
latest attack, the first successful bombing in Israel in exactly two
months.
"The
policy of Sharon is responsible for the terror in the area. Zionist
incursions targeting Palestinian civilians are responsible for all
this violence, and the blood will flow as long the violence and terror
continue.
"Our
people will fight, whoever carried this operation," he said.
Israel
Abducts 20 Palestinians, Demolishes More Houses
Israeli
troops abducted 20 Palestinians and demolished a house in the West
Bank late Tuesday, Israeli military sources said Wednesday.
In
the northern city of Nablus, Israeli troops demolished the house of an
activist from the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the
Islamic Hamas movement - who was killed in 2001 in a botched car bomb
attack.
Palestinian
sources said the two-storey building housed a family of eight.
During
the morning, the Israeli army withdrew from the city's central Casbah
district following a two-day incursion, Palestinian security sources
said.
Israeli
troops had carried out house-to-house searches in the densely
populated neighborhood.
Palestinian
security sources also said Israeli special forces made a rare foray
into Ariha (Jericho), the only West Bank town not under permanent
Israeli occupation, and arrested a lawyer, who is not known for his
affiliation to any faction.
