Bomb checks on bus passengers

2004-03-04 20:07

Jerusalem - Bus passengers in Israel will be systematically checked for explosives with metal detectors to prevent suicide bombers from getting onboard, Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said on Thursday.

"We have suffered from atrocities with no precedent in the history of cruelty and violence," Hanegbi told reporters in Jerusalem.

"The policy of fanatic terrorism has hurt too many innocent people ... who use public transportation because they are not wealthy enough to have their own cars."

Hundreds of Israelis have been killed and thousands more injured by Palestinian suicide bombers since the start of the anti-Israeli intifada in September 2000, with public buses a favourite target.

In the most recent such attack, eight passengers were killed on February 22 in the German Colony area of Jerusalem.

Nine people plus a bomber were also killed in a January 29 blast aboard a bus near Israeli Prime Ariel Sharon's official residence in central Jerusalem.

Hanegbi was speaking at a ceremony to thank the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christian and Jews which donated $2m to purchase the handheld detectors that will be used on 1 000 buses, or one-fifth, of Israel's fleet within weeks.

"I am thanking good Christian people who give their hard-earned money to save Jews and Arabs alike since buses are taken by both people," the minister said.

"We hope it will be your last contribution so that this phenomena disappears from our life."

The cash will also pay for recruiting additional security personnel who will check every passenger before they board the pilot buses.

The project, worth a total of $7m with the remainder to be raised by the same US organisation, will also see the installation of walk-through detectors at the entrances of some of Israel's 50 central bus stations and 22 000 bus stops within months.

Hanegbi said his ministry would eventually gather the necessary funds to extend what he called a "new security tactic" to all of Israel's 5 500 buses and its bus stations and stops.

- SAPA