Arafat Calls for Cease-Fire as Disco Bomb Death Toll Hits 21
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Israelis buried 14 victims, including several teenagers, of a suicide bomb attack on a Tel Aviv disco Sunday. Palestinians tried to enforce a unilateral cease-fire but braced for a retaliatory blow from Israel, which called off its own cease-fire after the blast.
Two more Israelis died of their wounds Sunday, hospital officials said. That raised the death toll to 21, including the bomber. Ninety people were injured in Friday's blast. Several remain in critical condition.
The military wing of the Hamas militant group, Izzedine al Qassam, claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement on its Web site and in leaflets distributed in Palestinian territories on Sunday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The group identified the bomber as Hassan Hussein Hotari, from the West Bank town of Qalqilya. His family members in Jordan, however, identified him as Saeed Hotary, 22.
Relatives there said the family had moved to Jordan, but Hotary had lived with an uncle in Qalqilya for the last two years and was a close friend of a suicide bomber who blew himself up on March 28, killing two Israeli children.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said in a Cabinet meeting that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would be given a chance to carry out the cease-fire he called Saturday, according to an anonymous source.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ben-Eliezer said there has been a reduction in attacks against Israelis since Arafat's order took effect at 10 p.m. Saturday.
Israel demanded that as part of his cease-fire, Arafat arrest militants and stop incitement against Israel in the Palestinian media.
However, Palestinian Cabinet minister Ziad Abu-Zayyad said, "We're not talking about arresting people or putting people in jail." He said the cease-fire applies to Palestinian police and security in areas under full Palestinian control.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Since assuming authority in Palestinian parts of Gaza and the West Bank in 1994, Arafat has hesitated to crack down on militant groups, fearing a civil war. From time to time, at Israel's insistence, Arafat's police have rounded up militants.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that "this is the time" for Arafat to control the level of violence.
Powell also said he fears a retaliatory strike by Israel in response to the nightclub bombing could plunge the region into "an abyss that we might not be able to get out of."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Powell said he thinks Arafat has "a great control" over Palestinians but cannot control "every last person."
"If he uses that authority" to make sure the cease-fire holds, "that will carry great weight," Powell said. "My message for him is pretty direct and clear. ... This is the time to bring the violence under control."
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, anti-aircraft guns opened fire Sunday on Israeli warplanes on a reconnaissance mission, Lebanese officials said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The shooting — denied by Israeli even though reporters heard the gunfire — was the first response to such overflights since Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon a year ago.
Fighter jets were seen flying at medium altitude over southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley on Sunday morning and early afternoon. The Lebanese army opened fire from anti-aircraft batteries dotting the area but did not hit any aircraft, according to Lebanese security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In Israel, an army spokesman denied any Israeli planes were targeted. He would not comment on allegations that the planes flew over Lebanon.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"There was no fire directed toward Israeli warplanes," the spokesman said.
The front pages of Israel's Sunday newspapers showed pictures of the fresh-faced teenagers, most of them recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union, their bodies ripped apart by the bomb wrapped with nails and bolts.
The headline of the Maariv daily read "We cry for our children" in Hebrew and Russian script.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The bombing seems to have hardened attitudes against the Palestinians among secular Israelis, who have been more supportive of the peace process than the often violent religious settlers on the West Bank.
A crowd gathered outside the bombed nightclub began throwing rocks at a mosque across the street Saturday, an expression of intolerance seldom seen in liberal Tel Aviv.
"They killed 17 of our people," the Washington Post quoted an Israeli 20-year-old named Michelle as saying as she gathered handfuls of stones. "Now we want to kill them."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In Gaza, the joint leadership of the Palestinian uprising, made up of officials aligned with Arafat along with militant groups, met briefly but did not discuss the cease-fire call, explaining that it was not formally put on the agenda. The meeting ended after a few minutes, officials said, because of fear of an Israeli attack.
Police stations and offices of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were deserted Sunday morning, as the Palestinians braced for Israeli retaliation. Shalom said the security Cabinet, meeting in a rare session on the Jewish Sabbath Saturday, had approved targets to strike.
On Sunday morning, Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli army vehicle in the West Bank, the military said. Earlier, Palestinians fired at Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and an Israeli army outpost. No injuries were reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Responding to the suicide bombing, Israel canceled its self-proclaimed cease-fire, said Cabinet minister Ephraim Sneh. On May 22, Sharon ordered his army not to take offensive actions, allowing gunfire only in life-threatening circumstances.
Finance Minister Silvan Shalom said Sunday that Israel is now relating to Arafat's regime as a "model of a terrorist state" on a par with Iran. However, he told Israel radio, Israel is not trying to bring about Arafat's collapse.
The Israeli army closed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip with the aim of preventing infiltration of militants with bombs into Israel. Soldiers also blocked roads in and out of Palestinian towns, reimposing restrictions that crippled the Palestinian economy over the first months of the conflict but were eased recently.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Israeli police and security were on alert Sunday for more attacks.
Since fighting erupted last September, 484 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 107 on the Israeli side.
The Associated Press contributed to this report