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At least eight dead in Jerusalem attack
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March 07, 2008, 06:15
A Palestinian gunman shot dead at least eight people at a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem, but Israel said the killings would not derail US sponsored peace talks. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack at the Merkaz Harav seminary, one of the city's most prominent Jewish educational centres.
Celebrations broke out in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after the attack. A recent Israeli offensive in Gaza killed more than 120 Palestinians, about half of whom were identified as civilians. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arye Mekel said peace talks would continue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who denounced the shooting. The attack could further complicate US efforts to try to broker a statehood deal by the end of 2008.
Washington has tried to persuade Israel to ease some travel restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, but the attack makes that far less likely to happen soon. Jerusalem sources said they believed the attacker was from East Jerusalem. US President George W Bush called Olmert. "I told him the United States stands firmly with Israel in the face of this terrible attack," Bush said in a statement.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain were among the first to strongly condemn the killings. The attack followed a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who persuaded Abbas to resume peace talks he suspended over the bloody Gaza assault. Witnesses said the gunman entered the crowded seminary and fired an automatic weapon at students in its library.
Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said the attacker had used a cardboard box to hide his gun. In addition to those killed, at least 10 people were wounded, three of them seriously, emergency workers said. It was the highest Israeli death toll since April 17, 2006, when 11 people were killed and over 60 wounded in a suicide bombing during the Passover holiday in Tel Aviv. Outside the Jerusalem seminary, a crowd shouted "Death to the Arabs".
Heroic operation
In Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called the attack a "heroic operation." "The heroic operation that took place in Jerusalem is a natural reaction to the Israeli massacres they committed in the Gaza Strip and general crimes committed against the Palestinians. This heroic martyrdom operation comes to reassure the failure of defeating the resistance. It is a reassurance that the resistance is prevailing in using any means available. It therefore goes to confirm the failure of the security plans that aim to crush the resistance.
Therefore this operation comes to defy all the sides that are trying to eliminate the resistance," he said. The attack in Jerusalem came hours after inconclusive talks in which Egypt sought to broker a truce between Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders and Israel to halt a surge in violence. - Reuters
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