Israelis Await the Bombs

JERUSALEM: “Everybody’s holding their breath right now waiting for the blast,” says TIME Jerusalem bureau chief Lisa Beyer. Whether or not Israel had a hand in the death of Hamas leader Mohiyedine Sharif, Israelis will be the designated target of Hamas’s bloody revenge.

The Palestinian Authority initially pointed fingers at Israel, saying a pathologist had found that Sharif was shot before his body was blown up in a car bomb. Today, however, they appeared to concede that Sharif had been assembling the car bomb at the time of his death. Palestinian security officials are also working with Israel to investigate Sharif’s death and are rounding up his supporters. “The Palestinian Authority has no interest in seeing a new round of Hamas attacks,” says Beyer. Still, it may be some time before Israelis and their Palestinian neighbors can again breathe easy.