Yemen rejects EU decision on Hamas:Huge explosion rocks Jerusalem [Archives:2003/667/Front Page]

By Reuters and Yemen Times Staff
JERUSALEM, Sept 9- Palestinian suicide bombers killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens in two attacks in Israel on Tuesday, medical workers and police said.
Four people were killed and dozens wounded in a blast in a Jerusalem cafe. The explosion tore through the Hillel cafe in Jewish west Jerusalem just hours after another suicide bomber killed six people at a bus stop near an army camp outside Tel Aviv.
The militant Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility for the two bombings in a statement to Al Jazeera television. The blasts followed a waves of Israeli strikes against Hamas leaders and field commanders.
“A suicide bomber entered the cafe and detonated his explosives,” Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said. “Two guards were stationed at the cafe, one at the entrance and one inside.”
“Apparently the guard at the entrance saw him and tried to stop him from going in. But he got inside and there was a powerful explosion,” Levy said.
A Reuters correspondent saw the bodies of four people on the bloodstained pavement. Medics confirmed the death toll.
“It was a fiery explosion, a great boom. I couldn't hear for a while and I saw people fleeing in all directions,” Gideon Cohen, 19, who was working in a nearby restaurant.
“I saw several bodies on the ground. There was panic. It was crazy. The tables were overturned. There was glass everywhere.”
The violence has all but shattered a U.S.-backed peace plan aimed at ending three years of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
Hours before the bus stop bombing, Israeli troops killed two senior Hamas militants in a shootout in the West Bank city of Hebron.
“Innocent Israelis were targeted for a second time in one evening by Palestinian terrorists,” said David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office.
“The Palestinian Authority is doing absolutely nothing to dismantle its terrorist infrastructure,” he said. “This inaction is a direct cause of the terror activity against Israel.”

Yemen rejects EU decision
On the other hand, Yemeni government demanded Tuesday the EU to consider its decision of naming the Islamic Resisting Movement Hamas as a terrorist organization. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the decision as unjust, pointing out that this condemnation of Hamas is against the Charter that legalizes resistance against any occupying forces and goes against the stand of the European countries that support movements of resistance to occupation. It pointed out that Yemen is not happy with this decision which, according to the statement, has come as a result of an Israeli pressure. It expressed surprise at the silence of the international communit over Israeli aggression on the Palestinians. Yemen demanded also that the EU should take its own responsibility in pressuring Israel to stop violent acts against Palestinian people and that the two parties should start an immediate implementation of the Road Map.
The Yemeni government and opposition political parties denounced the Israeli attempt to kill the Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahamd Yassin, considering this act as an escalation of violence.
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