Jerusalem suicide bomber kills six
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Israeli troops yesterday began to bury the piles of bodies of Palestinians killed by the army in the Jenin refugee camp and the war took another downward turn as a suicide bomber – from the same camp – blew herself up in west Jerusalem.
Six other people were killed in the blast on a bus and many injured, wrecking the first day of a peace-making mission by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell.
As the attention of the world's international aid agencies focused on what is clearly a major atrocity in Jenin – closed to ambulances for a fifth day – a diplomatic stand-off was developing last night between General Powell and the Palestinians.
The White House seized on the suicide bombing – the latest of a wave of horrific attacks against Israeli civilians – to press Mr Arafat to issue a clear condemnation, saying that General Powell would decide whether to meet him today on the basis of his response.
Last night General Powell called off his meeting with Mr Arafat, scheduled for today at the Palestinian leader's besieged compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Palestinian Information Minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said the meeting would possibly take place tomorrow.
Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister, refused yesterday to bow to pressure from the US to end his invasion of the West Bank at once. General Powell emerged from a lengthy meeting admitting that he had not secured a timetable for withdrawal.
His failure caused anger behind the scenes in Washington, and deep concern among international human rights and aid organisations, which believe that the army's rampage – in which hundreds have been killed – is guaranteeing a long, brutal war.
One of its bloodiest episodes by far has occurred in the Jenin refugee camp. Reports from the scene say that hundreds of people, armed men and civilians, have been killed in the past few days. The Israeli army admitted to hundreds dead yesterday but then corrected itself to "casualties", meaning that the figure included injuries.
There was fury among international aid workers yesterday at the Israeli army's decision to bar them access to the camp while they buried the dead – taking those defined by Israel as "terrorists" to a desert cemetery in the Jordan Valley where they were placed in unmarked graves. "They clearly have something to hide," said one senior UN official.
The woman bomber struck near an open-air market in west Jerusalem, in an area that has been repeatedly attacked by suicide bombers. A large crowd was shopping before the start of the Sabbath.
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