Military

DATE=8/31/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL/EXPLOSIONS (L)

NUMBER=2-318614

BYLINE=LARRY JAMES

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

///// PLEASE UPDATE CASUALTY FIGURES IN INTRO AS WARRANTED. /////

HEADLINE: Twin Suicide Bombings Rock Southern Israeli City

INTRO: The southern Israeli city of Beersheva has been hit by explosions on two city buses. VOA's Larry James reports from Jerusalem that emergency services say there are 12 dead and more than 50 injured in the blasts.

TEXT: Police report that the blasts occurred almost simultaneously when suicide bombers blew themselves up on two buses about 100-meters apart in the center of Beersheva.

Beersheva is a town of 150 thousand people located in the Negev desert, about 40-kilometers east of the Gaza Strip and far from the usual scenes of Palestinian militant attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Israel Radio that it is government policy to fight terror and that he would do just that. Mr. Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said Israel would take whatever steps necessary to protect its citizens.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said "the Palestinian Authority condemns any attacks that target civilians, whether Israelis or Palestinian."

It has been more than five months since the last suicide attack inside Israel. That was on March 14th, when two Palestinians blew themselves up in the Israeli port of Ashdod, killing 10 people. That attack led to an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip that killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Israel says the lull in terror attacks is the result of continuing security operations and is not due to a lack of trying by Palestinian militants. Israeli security officials say they prevent dozens of attacks nearly every day.

Israel also says its controversial security barrier being built in and around the West Bank has drastically cut down on the number of successful terror attacks.

Early Tuesday, Israeli troops caught and disarmed a man wearing an explosive belt as he tried to pass through the Erez checkpoint from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel. (SIGNED)

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