Jerusalem ? A day after a bombing that killed seven people, including five Americans, U.S. students opened a new summer session at Hebrew University in mourning Thursday, saying they wouldn’t be driven away by the attack.

“It hardened my resolve to stay,” said Daniel Faraha, 20, of Carmel, Ind., who walked out of the cafeteria at the Frank Sinatra International Student Center about three minutes before the explosion Wednesday. The bombers, he said, “did this because they wanted us to run away.”

In a tearful ceremony at Israel’s airport, caskets with the remains of Benjamin Blutstein, 25, of Susquehanna Township, Pa., and Janis Ruth Coulter, 36, who worked in New York City, were put aboard a plane for a flight to the United States. The body of Marla Bennett, 24, from San Diego, was to be flown home Saturday.

At least one American victim, Dina Carter, 37, who also had Israeli citizenship, was to be buried in Israel, police said. Another victim, David Gritz, 24, held dual American-French citizenship.

U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, a one-time student at the university, denounced terror attacks and added a wreath to a makeshift memorial outside the cafeteria.

“We have grieved with all the people of Israel as they have faced Palestinian terrorism,” Kurtzer said. “Now that five American citizens have been killed, our grief is even deeper.”

The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing, and Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantisi said it didn’t matter to the group that most of the dead were Americans.

“We are fighting on our occupied land. We didn’t go to America or France,” Rantisi told The Associated Press. “It is better for America and France to advise its citizens not to go to areas of war.”

In Washington, President Bush said: “I am just as angry as Israel is. I am furious. … But even though I am mad, I still think peace is possible.”

Hebrew University has 1,500 foreign students. Some come to show solidarity with Israel, while others see it as an adventurous semester or year abroad. Others want to focus intensively on Jewish studies and learning Hebrew. A small number are Christian divinity students who want firsthand experience in the Holy Land.