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The Palestinian arrested in the grenade assault on Monday<br />
that wounded 67 Israelis, including 24 soldiers, has confessed<br />
to several recent terrorist incidents, Israeli Army officials said<br />
today. The suspect, Salem Rajab al-Sarsour, 29, an Islamic<br />
militant, admitted the assault on the Beersheba bus terminal, a<br />
similar grenade attack late last month on an army post in<br />
Hebron, and the fatal stabbing of an elderly rabbi, also in<br />
Hebron, in late August, the Israeli officials said. Mr. Sarsour<br />
described the attack on the bus station, which disrupted the<br />
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Maryland and became the<br />
subject of international attention, as an impulsive act born of<br />
frustration, the officials said. The grenades were intended for<br />
a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, the Israeli officials said. But Mr.<br />
Sarsour, who had traveled to Beersheba to seek construction<br />
work, was so frustrated by his failed search that he hurled the<br />
grenades at the terminal, where he was to have caught a bus<br />
home. He was captured and pummeled by a bus driver, who<br />
turned him over to the police. The Israeli officials said Mr.<br />
Sarsour, a father of five who lives in the Palestinian-controlled<br />
sector of Hebron, has been active for years in Hamas, the<br />
Islamic fundamentalist group.<br />
The armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the<br />
attack today. In a fax to Reuters in Jerusalem, the group, the<br />
Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigade, said, ''One of our heroic<br />
fighters carried out a heroic operation on Monday morning in<br />
the town of Beersheba which targeted a crowd of enemy<br />
soldiers.'' But a senior Palestinian security official, Jibril<br />
Rajoub, said Sarsour had committed ''an individual act.''<br />
Rajoub said the bombing should not reflect negatively on the<br />
Palestinians' commitment to cracking down on terrorists. The<br />
Israelis say that is the deal-breaking issue in the peace talks. In<br />
Beersheba, officials said, Mr. Sarsour lobbed two grenades at<br />
the terminal during the morning rush hour, wounding the<br />
soldiers, who were returning to their base, and 43 civilians.
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