Palestinian refugees, militant leaders celebrate suicide bombings in Israel

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Palestinians in refugee camps across Lebanon fired rifles into the air Sunday to celebrate a series of anti-Israeli suicide attacks that killed more than two dozen people.

After news emerged of the bombings in Jerusalem and the northern Israeli city of Haifa, refugees in at least six camps in Lebanon celebrated in the streets, Lebanese security officials said on condition of anonymity.

"These great achievements restore the spirit of victory and jihad to the people and the nation," said Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, leader of the Syrian-based Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

Another extremist group, Hamas, claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks. The suicide bombings – one Sunday against a Haifa bus and another Saturday night in a Jerusalem pedestrian mall – killed 25 people, along with an Israeli slain in a gun attack on cars in the Gaza Strip.

The refugee camps in Lebanon, like others in Syria and Jordan, are populated by Palestinians who lost their homes in Israel during the 1948 war and their descendants.

The attacks, which also injured nearly 200 people, came as a U.S. envoy was in the region trying to forge an Israeli-Palestinian truce after more than 14 months of fighting.

"The Americans have come to the region with one goal – an Israeli goal – to liquidate the intefadeh (uprising) and resistance," Shallah said in comments to Lebanon Hezbollah's al-Manar Television.

Shallah said the series of attacks was motivated by Israeli killings of militant Palestinian leaders, in particular the Nov. 23 slaying of a top Hamas militant in the West Bank, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud.

"The death of a commander will lead to the emergence of tens of commanders who will horrify the enemy and make them feel the pain like last night and today," he said.

Egypt and Jordan called for and end to Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that his country deplores all violence against innocent people and that "there is no alternative but to return to negotiations and dialogue."

Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah Khatib expressed his country's deep concern about the bombings, calling them "another episode in the vicious circle of the Palestinian-Israeli violence."

The latest casualties should "persuade everybody that the bloody confrontations will not lead to any benefit for any party," Khatib said in a statement carried by the official Petra news agency.

AP-WS-12-02-01 1211EST