.gene.
10-15-2003, 10:10 AM
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip — Three Americans were killed and another was wounded Wednesday when a remote-controlled bomb exploded under a U.S. diplomatic vehicle in the Gaza Strip, tearing apart an armored van.
It was the first attack on a U.S. target in three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting and likely will cause the United States and its allies to pressure the Palestinian Authority to take action against militant groups.
The blast went off around 10:15 a.m. as a three-car U.S. diplomatic convoy with a Palestinian police escort drove near a gas station on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip (search).
The victims were all males in their late 20s and early 30s, Fox News has learned. The Palestinian driver of the vehicle was wounded.
In response to the attack, the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv advised all Americans to leave the Gaza Strip and asked the Israeli government to help evacuate Americans from that area.
"We put out a warden message to Americans in Gaza to leave for their own safety," said embassy spokesman Paul Patin.
"The United States government recommends that all U.S. citizens depart the area as expeditiously as possible, while avoiding the area of the attack," the statement read. It also asked American citizens in the West Bank to take precautions against possible further attacks.
The wounded American was initially treated at a Gaza hospital and was awaiting transfer to Soroka Hospital in the Israeli town of Beersheba. The bodies of the Americans were brought across the border to Israel to a forensic institute near Tel Aviv.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (search) condemned the attack, calling it an "awful crime" and said he ordered an investigation.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred on the Palestinian side of a checkpoint near the border of Israel. Two of the most prominent militant groups that fight for Palestinian independence -- Islamic Jihad and Hamas -- both denied involvement.
Islamic Jihad (search) spokesman Nafez Nazzam said his group "has no intention to extend a cycle of confrontation with any nation ... except the occupation. Our battle is with the occupiers only."
"In the land of Palestine, it's not proper to target Americans nor any other nations," he said.
Hamas (search) political leader Adnan Asfour told Reuters that "it's not Hamas' mission to expand its struggle and its enemy is only the enemy of the Palestinian people, which is the Israeli occupation."
Palestinian officials said those killed were bodyguards for Tel Aviv-based U.S. Embassy officials who had planned to interview Palestinian applicants for U.S. scholarships in Gaza City. U.S. diplomatic sources also said the victims were security guards for the U.S. diplomats traveling in the other vehicles. The convoy apparently was that of an American cultural attaché headed toward the education ministry.
'We Saw Bodies'
The blast gouged a deep crater into an unpaved stretch of road. The attack tore the van in half and flipped it over, leaving the wreckage twisted with the tires up in the air. The pavement was stained with blood and littered with bits of flesh that were collected by Palestinian paramedics.
An AP reporter saw a gray wire with an on-off switch leading from the scene of the attack to a small concrete room at the side of the road.
Mohammed Radwan, a Palestinian taxi driver, was at the gas station when the blast went off as the third U.S. car passed.
"The first two cars drove quickly and stopped far form the explosion," Radwan said. "Palestinian security people jumped out of the car and rushed to the car that had blown up. When I tried to approach them, they shouted at me to leave. I saw two people covered with blood lying next to the car."
Avi Isacharoff was a witness to the carnage.
"We saw bodies, parts of bodies, we saw parts of cars about 30 meters from the explosion itself," Isacharoff told Fox News. The car "wasn't even split in half, it was just upside down, only the shield was left in it ... I really couldn't believe it was a car or American car … just the windshield was left, body parts were all over… it was just a huge mess."
When U.S. investigators arrived to photograph the scene, about a dozen Palestinian youths threw stones at the investigators as about 200 Palestinians looked on.
As the angry crowd chanted "Allahu Akbar" -- "God is great" -- the Americans rushed back into their cars, surrounded by nervous Palestinian security officers with rifles raised. Palestinian police beat some people in the crowd while pushing the spectators back, and the cars sped away under a hail of stones.
U.S. convoys travel in Gaza almost daily, and are easily identifiable -- usually bearing diplomatic license plates -- and mostly take the same route on the main north-south road in the strip as where Wednesday's blast occurred.
Another Roadblock for Peace
Wednesday's attack could deal a major blow to Palestinian efforts to bring more international monitors to the region.
"This is an act that was acted against the Palestinian people, against the national interest of the Palestinian people, these were people that were coming to help us … rebuild schools and infrastructures," Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian cabinet member, told Fox News, promising "zero tolerance" for similar attacks.
"This is very unfortunate, very tragic and stand assured that no effort will be spared in order to investigate the matter … this will not be tolerated under any circumstances."
Erekat said his government wants to get back to the negotiating table to hammer out differences in the U.S.-backed Mideast "roadmap" for peace.
Israeli government spokesman Ranann Gissin told Fox News that although it's not clear which group is responsible for the attack, Arafat's Palestinian Authority is to blame.
"All of the excuses stop today," Gissin said. "This incident took place in an area under full control of the Palestinian authorities ... [you must] "draw the conclusion about the involvement and culpability of the Palestinian Authority."
Palestinian militants have attacked Israeli army and settler convoys in Gaza repeatedly in the past three years of fighting, both with bombs and gunfire. Islamic militants, responsible for the bulk of the attacks, have maintained they have no interest in taking aim at non-Israeli targets.
"We strongly condemn this incident and we will conduct an investigation and we will follow it to find the source of this attack," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told reporters in the West Bank.
Israeli officials said the attack underscored the need to dismantle Palestinian militant groups -- a requirement of the stalled peace plan that Palestinian leaders have refused to carry out.
"What happened is evidence that no one is immune, unfortunately, to Palestinian terrorism, even when we are talking about the representatives of ... the United States, whose entire goal was and remains to advance a peace agreement between the sides," said Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Attacks on U.S. targets have taken place in other Arab countries, including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and now Iraq. In October last year, an American administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development was gunned down in Amman, Jordan, in an assassination thought linked to Al Qaeda.
But in the bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, there has been an unofficial policy of "hands-off" the Americans -- though American civilians have been caught in the crossfire, killed in suicide bombings.
It was the first attack on a U.S. target in three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting and likely will cause the United States and its allies to pressure the Palestinian Authority to take action against militant groups.
The blast went off around 10:15 a.m. as a three-car U.S. diplomatic convoy with a Palestinian police escort drove near a gas station on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip (search).
The victims were all males in their late 20s and early 30s, Fox News has learned. The Palestinian driver of the vehicle was wounded.
In response to the attack, the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv advised all Americans to leave the Gaza Strip and asked the Israeli government to help evacuate Americans from that area.
"We put out a warden message to Americans in Gaza to leave for their own safety," said embassy spokesman Paul Patin.
"The United States government recommends that all U.S. citizens depart the area as expeditiously as possible, while avoiding the area of the attack," the statement read. It also asked American citizens in the West Bank to take precautions against possible further attacks.
The wounded American was initially treated at a Gaza hospital and was awaiting transfer to Soroka Hospital in the Israeli town of Beersheba. The bodies of the Americans were brought across the border to Israel to a forensic institute near Tel Aviv.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (search) condemned the attack, calling it an "awful crime" and said he ordered an investigation.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred on the Palestinian side of a checkpoint near the border of Israel. Two of the most prominent militant groups that fight for Palestinian independence -- Islamic Jihad and Hamas -- both denied involvement.
Islamic Jihad (search) spokesman Nafez Nazzam said his group "has no intention to extend a cycle of confrontation with any nation ... except the occupation. Our battle is with the occupiers only."
"In the land of Palestine, it's not proper to target Americans nor any other nations," he said.
Hamas (search) political leader Adnan Asfour told Reuters that "it's not Hamas' mission to expand its struggle and its enemy is only the enemy of the Palestinian people, which is the Israeli occupation."
Palestinian officials said those killed were bodyguards for Tel Aviv-based U.S. Embassy officials who had planned to interview Palestinian applicants for U.S. scholarships in Gaza City. U.S. diplomatic sources also said the victims were security guards for the U.S. diplomats traveling in the other vehicles. The convoy apparently was that of an American cultural attaché headed toward the education ministry.
'We Saw Bodies'
The blast gouged a deep crater into an unpaved stretch of road. The attack tore the van in half and flipped it over, leaving the wreckage twisted with the tires up in the air. The pavement was stained with blood and littered with bits of flesh that were collected by Palestinian paramedics.
An AP reporter saw a gray wire with an on-off switch leading from the scene of the attack to a small concrete room at the side of the road.
Mohammed Radwan, a Palestinian taxi driver, was at the gas station when the blast went off as the third U.S. car passed.
"The first two cars drove quickly and stopped far form the explosion," Radwan said. "Palestinian security people jumped out of the car and rushed to the car that had blown up. When I tried to approach them, they shouted at me to leave. I saw two people covered with blood lying next to the car."
Avi Isacharoff was a witness to the carnage.
"We saw bodies, parts of bodies, we saw parts of cars about 30 meters from the explosion itself," Isacharoff told Fox News. The car "wasn't even split in half, it was just upside down, only the shield was left in it ... I really couldn't believe it was a car or American car … just the windshield was left, body parts were all over… it was just a huge mess."
When U.S. investigators arrived to photograph the scene, about a dozen Palestinian youths threw stones at the investigators as about 200 Palestinians looked on.
As the angry crowd chanted "Allahu Akbar" -- "God is great" -- the Americans rushed back into their cars, surrounded by nervous Palestinian security officers with rifles raised. Palestinian police beat some people in the crowd while pushing the spectators back, and the cars sped away under a hail of stones.
U.S. convoys travel in Gaza almost daily, and are easily identifiable -- usually bearing diplomatic license plates -- and mostly take the same route on the main north-south road in the strip as where Wednesday's blast occurred.
Another Roadblock for Peace
Wednesday's attack could deal a major blow to Palestinian efforts to bring more international monitors to the region.
"This is an act that was acted against the Palestinian people, against the national interest of the Palestinian people, these were people that were coming to help us … rebuild schools and infrastructures," Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian cabinet member, told Fox News, promising "zero tolerance" for similar attacks.
"This is very unfortunate, very tragic and stand assured that no effort will be spared in order to investigate the matter … this will not be tolerated under any circumstances."
Erekat said his government wants to get back to the negotiating table to hammer out differences in the U.S.-backed Mideast "roadmap" for peace.
Israeli government spokesman Ranann Gissin told Fox News that although it's not clear which group is responsible for the attack, Arafat's Palestinian Authority is to blame.
"All of the excuses stop today," Gissin said. "This incident took place in an area under full control of the Palestinian authorities ... [you must] "draw the conclusion about the involvement and culpability of the Palestinian Authority."
Palestinian militants have attacked Israeli army and settler convoys in Gaza repeatedly in the past three years of fighting, both with bombs and gunfire. Islamic militants, responsible for the bulk of the attacks, have maintained they have no interest in taking aim at non-Israeli targets.
"We strongly condemn this incident and we will conduct an investigation and we will follow it to find the source of this attack," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told reporters in the West Bank.
Israeli officials said the attack underscored the need to dismantle Palestinian militant groups -- a requirement of the stalled peace plan that Palestinian leaders have refused to carry out.
"What happened is evidence that no one is immune, unfortunately, to Palestinian terrorism, even when we are talking about the representatives of ... the United States, whose entire goal was and remains to advance a peace agreement between the sides," said Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Attacks on U.S. targets have taken place in other Arab countries, including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and now Iraq. In October last year, an American administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development was gunned down in Amman, Jordan, in an assassination thought linked to Al Qaeda.
But in the bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, there has been an unofficial policy of "hands-off" the Americans -- though American civilians have been caught in the crossfire, killed in suicide bombings.