World leaders condemn suicide attack in Israel
AFP, Paris
World leaders sharply condemned a suicide attack in northern Israel Saturday that killed 19 victims including five children on the eve of the Jewish faith's holiest day. "I condemn unequivocally the vicious act of terrorism," US President George W. Bush said in a statement. A woman suicide bomber walked into an upmarket restaurant in the port city of Haifa after midday on Saturday and detonated her explosives, killing herself and 19 other people, and wounding about 50. The radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack in an anonymous telephone call to AFP. "This murderous action, aimed at families gathered to enjoy a Sabbath lunch" is a "despicable attack," said Bush. The European Union, which is a member of the diplomatic quartet that drafted the "roadmap" for peace in the Middle East, expressed its "deep consternation at this new and most serious attack." EU foreign ministers, meeting in Rome to discuss a new European constitution, underlined "the absolute necessity of putting an end to the spiral of violence in the Middle East, to restart dialogue in the context of the peace process." The peace process has stalled over the past few months amidst renewed violence, Israel's threat to expel Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and the construction of a security barrier along the West Bank.
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