Gaza terror group steps-up the heat against Palestinian reunification through Jerusalem bomb; kills woman tourist, wounds dozens including 2 pregnant women

In the wake of a popular movement to remake Palestinian rule by uniting Fatah with Hamas, a terror group with links to Hezbollah lauded the bombing of a Jerusalem bus-stop today. The blast killed a 59-year old tourist, and wounded dozens more, including 2 pregnant women.

Globes news reports: On Wednesday a pipe bomb exploded today near Bus 174 in Jerusalem. The attack took place at the entrance to the city, near Binyanei Ha'uma Conference Center. Emergency services rushed to the scene. One woman who was critically injured later died of her wounds. Three other injuries were termed serious, and there were dozens of other injured people.

Rescue workers: Pregnant women among Jerusalem blast victims  from the Jewish Chronicle by Jennifer Lipman and Jessica Elgot  March 23, '11

Rescue workers attend to victims of the blast. The terror
 act wounded more than 24 people and killed a lady tourist.

Israeli emergency workers have spoken of treating injured pregnant women and seeing pools of blood at the scene of the bomb near Jerusalem’s central bus station today.

Yonatan Yogadovsky, director of the Magen David Adom (MDA) international department , said ambulances were on the scene immediately to tend to the wounded, estimated to include more than 30 civilians.

Mr Yogadovsky, who was director of MDA’s Jerusalem operation during both intifadas, said: “The streets were packed with people during the evening commute, as workers left for home and children finished school.

“There were two pregnant women injured and taken to the hospital by MDA.”

He added: “The people who were badly injured were outside near the explosive device and some people inside the number 74 bus [which was stopped when the bomb exploded] were lightly and moderately injured.”

Motti Bukchin, a volunteer for clean-up organisation ZAKA, said: “When we arrived at the site of the attack, we saw two women lying in huge pools of blood on the pavement.”

Video from the scene in this report by InfoLive.TV in Israel:

The suitcase bomb blasted hundreds of ball-bearings into the crowd and bus, Israel Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told reporters on an Israel Project tele-conference.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last week announced he will hold elections across the Palestinian territories within 6-months. Hundreds of Gazan college students rallied last Wednesday to recombine Gaza with the West Bank - which could change Hamas' tyranny over Gazans.  The demonstration was broken-up violently by undercover Hamas police.  Al Jazeera reported on the protest.
 
(Al Jazeera video excerpt courtesy NicoleJohnston2011)

The police interfered with journalists reporting the story - and destroyed or confiscated their media equipment.

(Reuters) On Saturday, several armed men entered Reuters' office in Gaza, threatened employees with guns and took away a video camera, apparently after they spotted a reporter filming a civil demonstration from the building.

The men whipped one Reuters journalist on the arm with a metal bar and threatened to throw another out of the window of the high-rise block. The group, which numbered about 10 men, smashed a television set and other equipment.

Blog editor, Challah hu Akbar, quotes the Palestinian Maan News Agency which reported:

A Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip said Saturday that she received threats of violence from Hamas officials over her participation in demonstrations.

The journalist told Ma'an that Hamas police threatened her and her son if she wrote anything on Facebook or her blog about the pro-unity protests that have been dispersed violently by authorities in Gaza in recent days.

"I deactivated my Facebook account and can't write anything on my blog" due to the threats against her son, she told Ma'an by phone from Gaza, adding that Hamas authorities were following her.

The Jerusalem Bus-Station Bombing: A Chilling Reminder to Us All by Giulio Meotti in National Review Online

The daily diet of hateful Islamist propaganda has had its intended effect. A terrorist attack has struck the Jerusalem bus station: At least 25 people were hurt and one woman was killed after an explosive device was detonated in a phone booth near the Convention Center. A worker saw “a yeshiva student running around with his legs on fire.” The Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza terror group, has lauded the attack.

The bombing occurred just hours after Gaza militants fired two Iranian rockets at the southern city of Be’er Sheva, a dusty corner of the world in the Negev desert. The Israelis are the only Western population forced to live with their eyes turned to heaven, sending their children to school by different buses. ...

The Jerusalem attack is a reminder to all of us that in the eyes of Islamists and terrorists, Israel itself is just one big settlement. The conflict is about Israel’s existence, not its size. Itamar’s “colonists” are tiny figures in the Middle Eastern conflict — but on a clear day from Itamar’s hills you can see both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A bombing just destroyed a bus in the holy city. The rockets will fall in Tel Aviv in the next war. In the mindset of the Islamic multitudes and Western appeasers, the goal is very clear: They want an Israel that packs up and goes away.