Jerusalem — Two terrorist bombings just hours apart left one person dead and dozens of Israelis injured in Jerusalem on Tuesday, while Jews and Palestinians clashed in the volatile city of Hebron, inflaming tensions to the breaking point.
With Israelis almost universally proclaiming that their patience has run out, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came under increased pressure to strike back hard at Palestinian militants who the army says also shot and killed a 10-month-old Jewish baby the day before.
"We simply have to chop off these murderous arms and to hit at those who come to strike at us and at those who send them," Education Minister Limor Livnat said.
A Palestinian official said all death is regrettable but put the blame on Israel's continued military occupation of parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A bloody revolt has claimed more than 430 lives, about 80 percent of them Palestinian, in the last six months.
Jewish settlers in Hebron, where the baby was shot to death, weren't ready to wait. Vowing revenge, they charged into Palestinian neighborhoods and fought with residents until the Israeli army intervened. At least one settler and six Palestinians were injured in skirmishing throughout the day. Jewish and Muslim cemeteries were vandalized and Palestinian storefronts ransacked.
Meanwhile, with Israeli anger over the baby's death already at fever-pitch, Jerusalem became the scene of the two bombings.
The more serious of the attacks came during lunchtime when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated nail-studded explosives strapped to his waist as he stood beside the No. 6 passenger bus in a busy intersection in the French Hill area on Jerusalem's northern edge.
The bomber's body was split in two and hurled into the air, witnesses said. The blast shattered the windows of the orange and white bus. At least 30 people were injured, including passersby and several high school students who were passengers, police said.
Nearly six hours earlier, during the morning rush-hour, a stolen car loaded with explosives blew up in the industrial suburb of Talpiot in southern Jerusalem. Five people were slightly wounded.
"The people of Israel must be strong," Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said at the scene of the French Hill bombing, as Israeli youths crowded around him and chanted, "Out with the Arabs!"
"This is war," the mayor said.
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