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At
Least Three Americans Killed In Gaza Bombing
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The wreckage of an American vehicle
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Additional
Reporting By Yasser Al Banna, IOL Correspondent
GAZA,
October 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least three
Americans were killed and two others injured in a road-side bomb
explosion Wednesday, October 15, on a convoy of U.S. diplomatic vehicles
traveling in the northern Gaza Strip, with Palestinian officials
condemning and charging it was an attempt to scuttle plans for sending
monitors to the occupied territories.
"We
have three dead. I am not sure about the fourth," a U.S. diplomatic
source told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
Magen David Adom service, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, also
said that three people were dead and a fourth was injured.
Palestinian
security sources had earlier said that four people had been killed in
the attack.
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The blast is the first attack of its kind in the Palestinian territories against a U.S. target
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The
blast went off shortly after 10:00am (0800 GMT) as the convoy was
traveling in the Beit Hanun area near a gas station down the road of
Salaheddin linking the north and the south of Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses
told IslamOnline.net.
"We
saw charred bodies and body parties scattered at the scene beside a jeep
believed to be a GMC on its way from the north to the south of the
Strip," they added.
When
foreign officials travel in and around the region they do so in heavily
armored vehicles, with many security officials in tow, said BBC's Simon
Wilson in occupied Jerusalem.
"We
are always on a very high security alert posture here, we are always
sort of very sensitive and aware of security issues," a U.S.
embassy source told AFP.
A
team of U.S. investigators arrived at the scene of the bomb attack,
Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.
Six
investigators arrived at the site near the Erez border crossing into
Israel around 1:15 pm (1115 GMT) and started investigating a crater left
by the force of the explosion, they said.
There
was no official word on the investigation from U.S. embassy officials in
Tel Aviv.
No
group claimed responsibility for the attack, the first of its kind in
the Palestinian territories against a U.S. target.
Palestinian
Condolences
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"I strongly condemn this crime which targeted Americans observers who came on a mission of peace and security," said Arafat
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The
Palestinian Authority was quick to condemn the attack and President
Yasser Arafat issued a strongly-worded statement denouncing the bombing
and proposed a three-way investigation committee of the PA, the U.S. and
the Quartet.
"I
strongly condemn this crime which targeted Americans observers who came
on a mission of peace and security," he said in a statement issued
by his office in Ramallah.
The
Palestinian leader said the attack could be meant to scuttle plans for
deploying foreign and American monitors to the occupied territories as
stipulated in the U.S.-backed roadmap.
Palestinian
Premier Ahmed Qorei and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat also condemned the
deadly attack and offered their condolences to the victims.
"We
express our profound regret and our anger after this incident which we
condemn and denounce," Qorei told reporters in this West Bank town.
Erekat
repudiated earlier reports by Israeli media that U.S. special Middle
East envoy John Wolf and officials from the Central Intelligence Agency
were traveling in the convoy.
He
told Al-Jazeera that Wolf was not in the region but in Washington
"to sign contracts for more monitors."
"They
are not CIA elements but rather American monitors to supervise the
implementation of the roadmap. They were deployed at the request of the
Palestinian Authority," Erekat stressed.
"The
entire Palestinian people are in favor of the deployment of monitors in
the occupied territories to verify the Israeli aggressions".
Israeli
forces backed by combat helicopters staged an incursion into the
northern Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the attack, according to
Palestinian security sources.
The
force penetrated some 1.5 kilometers (about a mile) into the Beit Hanun
and continued to head towards the area in which the attack took place,
one source told AFP.
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