|
A bombing in a crowded cafeteria at the Mount Scopus campus of Jerusalem's Hebrew University killed at least seven people Wednesday afternoon and injured at least 70, 14 seriously.
The injured were being taken to hospitals in the city, but the evacuation efforts were hampered by the location of the attack, inside a building on the campus.
In statement released to Al-Jazeera Television, the militant Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the attack, denying reports that the attack was a suicide bombing. Hamas has repeatedly sworn to avenge the assassination last week of its military commander Salah Shehadeh in an IDF air raid that also killed 11 children and a number of adult civilians.
There had been unconfirmed reports that the body of a suicide bomber was among the corpses at the scene.
"We still do not know about the exact number of losses," said deputy Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco.
David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, said that "Israel is fighting a pitched battle against terror and for the right to walk down the street, take a bus or sit in a cafeteria without the fear of being
decimated by Palestinian terrorism."
Though classes were not in session, students were taking exams at the time of the blast, and the cafeteria, situated in the university's Frank Sinatra building, was crowded with diners. There were also numerous students in the building registering for classes for the coming school year, witnesses said.
"This was one place that I thought was safe," said a shaken and bloodied survivor of the attack, who identified herself as Anat.
It was the second bomb attack in the capital in the space of 24 hours. On Tuesday five people were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a felafel stand in downtown Jerusalem, near the border with the city's largely Arab eastern half.
The Mount Scopus campus is adjacent to the West Bank, and is close to Arab neighborhoods of the holy city.
_________________________________
EMERGENCY INFORMATION HOTLINES:
Hadassah Hospital, Mount Scopus 125-5121
Hadassah Hospital, Ein Karem 125-5122
|
