TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cited yesterday’s roadside bomb attack that killed a 19-year-old female soldier and wounded more than two dozen people as evidence of Israel’s need for its West Bank security barrier.
The prime minister said Israel would continue to build the 400-mile matrix of chain fence, barbed wire and concrete walls to protect citizens against attacks like yesterday’s.
A world court ruling against the barrier on Friday amounted to a “slap in the face” to the war on terrorism, Mr. Sharon said in seeking to channel Israeli anger over the bombing against the U.N. court.
The bomb, which had been hidden in a thicket of bushes next to a bus stop, shattered one of the longest periods of calm since the start of the 45-month-old Palestinian uprising.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant affiliate of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party, took responsibility for the first explosion to rock an Israeli city since March, Israeli news organizations said. Mr. Arafat denounced the attack from his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Pictures of the bombing’s aftermath showed familiar images of destruction — pools of blood, bolt and metal shrapnel, and shattered windows across the street. The attack came less than 48 hours after the International Court of Justice in The Hague rebuked Israel for building a security barrier through the West Bank.
Speaking to his Cabinet after the bombing, Mr. Sharon rejected the world court’s nonbinding ruling, which said the barrier was illegal and should be dismantled.
“This morning’s act of murder is the first to have occurred under the auspices of the opinion of the International Court of Justice in The Hague,” Mr. Sharon said.
“The opinion completely ignores the reason for the construction of the security fence — murderous Palestinian terrorism. It deals only with the Israeli response — the construction of the fence, which is the most reasonable means in the face of this despicable terrorism.
“What the ICJ judges refused to see, the Palestinians quickly showed them this morning — murder and the wounding of innocent civilians.”
The explosion that struck the municipal bus was the first to hit Tel Aviv in more than a year. Police Chief Yossi Sedbon speculated that the explosion was triggered by remote control and that security guards stationed on the public buses have succeeded in deterring would-be suicide bombers.
“I heard a boom, and I saw a curtain of smoke in front of my eyes. For a moment, I thought there was a problem with the wheels,” said bus driver Eyal Gazit. “I opened the doors, and when I looked to the rear, I saw shattered glass.”
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan denounced the bombing and called on the Palestinian Authority to do its utmost to rein in the terrorists.
“No cause whatsoever can justify terrorism,” he said.
Despite the bombing, the Palestinian Authority hopes to leverage the world court ruling in upcoming sessions at the United Nations to penalize Israel for its construction of the barrier.
The world court concurred with Palestinian arguments that Israel’s snaking security fence is a de-facto land grab and creates hardship for residents of the West Bank by confiscating land and limiting movement. The world court said Israel had a right to defend itself, but couldn’t erect a barrier in lands seized in the 1967 Arab-Israel War.
Israel credits the barrier, which is about one-fourth completed, with contributing to drop in terrorist infiltrations from the West Bank into Israel. But even Israel’s own Supreme Court has criticized the route of the fence, saying several sections must be redrawn to eliminate unnecessary suffering by Palestinians.
Israeli diplomats have started lobbying U.S. and European governments to reject calls by the Palestinians to punish Israel unless the fence is dismantled.
Although the United States is expected to turn back any serious sanctions against Israel, local analysts said the ruling would do significant long-term damage to the Jewish state’s image.
“Even if Israel succeeds with the U.S. to block the translation of the decision into an enforceable decision by the Security Council, the decision has caused serious damage to Israel’s international standing,” said an editorial in the Ha’aretz newspaper.
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