Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said the Palestinians were "completely against" the deadly bombing earlier Thursday near a Jerusalem market, reported AFP.
Asked by reporters in Gaza City on the Palestinian position regarding the car bomb detonated in Jerusalem Arafat said: "We are completely against it."
Israel has accused Arafat's Palestinian Authority of responsibility for the blast that left two Israelis dead by releasing scores of Islamic militants from prison last month.
Responsibility for the Thursday bombing was claimed by the Islamic Jihad militant group.
Sources from the movement confirmed in a phone call to Albawaba.com in Damascus that one the groups belonging to the military wing of Jihad carried out the bombing to revenge “the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians.”
Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah said on Al Manarah satellite channel that the bombers from his group did not intend to commit suicide, and are already back in their homes
According to the Israeli radio, one of the two Israelis killed by the bombing was Ayelet Hashachar Levy, 28, daughter of the National Religious Party leader Rabbi Yitzhak Levy and mother of a three-yea- old daughter.
She had moved the same day to Jerusalem from Michmash settlement, near Ramallah, and was killed when she exited the car in which she had brought her belongings.
The other killed person was a friend of the daughter of Levy, said Israel’s radio report, adding that his name was Hanan Levy, 33, a lawyer who worked at an office nearby, and was walking to a meeting.
In Washington the same day, US President Bill Clinton appealed to Israel and the Palestinians not to let blast in Jerusalem derail an only hours-old tenuous new truce deal.
"I hope the parties can move forward to put an end to this violence that has caused so much pain on both sides, we know it won't be easy," Clinton said.
"This morning, we were reminded once again in Jerusalem that there are those who seek to destroy the peace through acts of terror," he told reporters at the White House.
"This cannot be allowed to prevail. It is now time for those who believe in peace to stand together to stop this violence and to work against the terrorists."
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
