Military

DATE=11/02/2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL / BOMB (L)

NUMBER=2-268751

BYLINE=MEREDITH BUEL

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICE AT:

INTRO: Two people are dead and at least nine injured after a powerful car bomb exploded near a popular market in the center of West Jerusalem. Correspondent Meredith Buel was on the scene shortly after the blast, and has this report.

TEXT: /// NATURAL SOUND SIREN ///

Flames burst into the air, and huge black plumes of smoke rose into the sky following a large explosion near Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market.

Witnesses say the roof of the car was hurled into the air as the blast rattled the windows of nearby shops, many located down narrow, cobblestone alleyways.

Panicked shoppers fled the area, which was soon cordoned off by police.

A man and a woman died in the blast, and police say at least one of the victims was an Israeli.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, and police are checking to see whether the assailants got away.

Ami Cohen was two-blocks away when the bomb exploded.

/// COHEN ACT ///

I heard a big, a huge, a huge bomb that I was touching my head that it will not fall off. I was afraid to come over to this place because I think to myself, maybe there will be another one.

/// END ACT ///

Zion Levy owns a bicycle shop a short distance from where the car bomb exploded.

/// LEVY ACT ///

I feel very bad. But this is our home. We have no place else to go. So we are staying here. I know many people, they are hysterical people.

/// END ACT ///

Israeli security forces have been on alert for terrorist bombings following five weeks of violence between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protestors.

The blast came just hours after Israeli and Palestinian leaders announced an agreement aimed at ending the violence.

/// OPT /// John Goldman, a 20-year-old religious student from the United States, expressed the anger many Israeli Jews feel toward the Palestinians.

/// GOLDMAN ACT // OPT ACT ///

I do not see how there can be any peace with the Arabs. We make peace, we try to make them happy, all they do is give us back bombs, throw stones, and that is it.

/// END ACT // END OPT ///

Israeli officials blamed the Palestinian Authority for the bombing because militants of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups have recently been released from Palestinian jails.

A Palestinian spokesman denied the allegations.

The Mahane Yehuda market has, in the past, been a target of suicide bombers belonging to Islamic groups opposed to the peace process. (SIGNED)

NEB/MB/GE/RAE