Palestinian Wounded in Bus Bombing Dies, Hamas Claims Him

A Palestinian terrorist from Yehudah and Shomron who was wounded when his bomb exploded on an Israeli commuter bus in Yerushalayim on Monday has died, an Israeli hospital spokeswoman and a pro-Hamas website said on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Shaare Zedek Hospital in Yerushalayim, where the wounded man was treated, confirmed he had succumbed to his injuries. Israeli authorities have placed a gag order on the investigation and declined to release any details.

The pro-Hamas Palestinian Information Center identified him as Abdel-Hamid Abu Srour from the Ayda refugee camp near Bethlehem, and said he was a member of the Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas terrorist organization.

The explosion blew up a bus, wounding 16 people, and caused a fire on a nearby bus. In a speech hours afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu linked the attack to a six-month-old wave of Palestinian street violence.

Israeli medical sources said six people wounded by the blast were still being treated, the rest had been released by late Wednesday.

Suicide bombings on Israeli buses were a hallmark of the intifada of 2000-2005, but have been rare since. However, a wave of stabbing, car-ramming and gun attacks by Arabs since October, has had Israel braced for an escalation of violence.