Tel Aviv Bus Bombing Kills 1, Injures 31.

By VOA News, IsraelNationalNews.com & Ma'ariv

An explosion at a bus stop in Tel Aviv has killed a woman and wounded 31 other people. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group closely linked with Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the blast. The group

Sgt. Ma'ayan Naim, a 19-year-old female soldier, was killed. When city bus line #26 passed by shortly after 7 a.m. on the first day of the Israeli workweek, the bomb was detonated, apparently by remote control, wounding both pedestrians and bus passengers. Her parents, Chaim and Mazal, identified their daughter's body at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. IDF representatives accompanied by city psychologists arrived earlier at the school of Ma'ayan's little sister and told her that she had died.

lbina Natayev, 23, a security guard riding the bus on her way to work, described the immediate aftermath of the blast:

"The door [of the bus] was destroyed, and the windows were blown out. Everyone was in panic. People fainted and others were shouting, 'run away.' The bus driver also shouted that we should get out. I told him to open the door, which he did, and then we all fled from the bus. I saw people outside with metal fragments in their eyes; others outside had fainted, because the blast originated from outside the bus. Many people were running in all directions. One woman covered in blood came to me for help. She was in much worse condition that I was."

One lightly hurt victim of the blast was an Arab citizen living in Jaffa, who declared emphatically afterwards on Voice of Israel radio: "I was against the [security] fence, but now I am for it, and I will start a society in favor of it. If the terrorists can get even me, an Arab from Jaffa, then there is really no other solution."

Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sedbom said the bombing had apparently been carried out by Palestinian militants, but that it was not a suicide bombing. The bombing was the first since March and occurred just two days after the U.N. World Court ruled that Israel's separation barrier is illegal and must be dismantled.

In a statement released by the al-Aqsa Brigades, the group said that the attack was a response to the killing of the group's operatives, including its Nablus leader Naif Abu-Shrah. A senior group operative told NRG Ma'ariv, "The bomb was placed in the bus and not as the Israelis say. It is a quality attack that will force the Israeli defense establishment to face new challenges. Israel's wall will not prevent our resistance fighters from reaching Tel Aviv".

Israel said it would not abide by the court ruling, saying the barrier it is building is a defensive measure to keep Palestinian attackers out of the country. Palestinians say the barrier is an Israeli land grab. About one quarter of the planned 685-kilometer long West Bank barrier has been built.