Tel Aviv Suicide Bombing Injures at Least 24
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 19, 2006; 1:42 PM
JERUSALEM, Jan. 19 -- At least two dozen Israelis were wounded Thursday
when a suicide bomber detonated explosives he was carrying in a
commercial section of Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city.
Israeli officials said only the 22-year-old bomber died in the blast,
which occurred just before 4 p.m. local time inside a restaurant popular
with immigrant workers near the city's old bus station. Israeli police
said only a portion of the bomber's explosives detonated, likely sparing
lives.
The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad asserted responsibility for
the bombing in a video tape released to media outlets soon after the
attack, the first in Tel Aviv since February of last year.
"Suddenly we heard a loud boom and I ran over and saw bodies everywhere
on the floor," said Shlomo Alayeb, 46, who sells cigarettes and
newspapers from a nearby kiosk.
Alayeb, who was playing backgammon at the time of the blast, said the
bomber detonated himself near the bathrooms at the back of the
restaurant, whose name roughly translates to Mayor Shawarma. At the
front, the counter displaying salads and the rotating lamb skewer
remained intact.
"His body was split in two and all of his inside were splashed on the
wall," Alayeb said. "They were lucky. If the terrorist had blown himself
up in the middle of the restaurant, many would have been killed."
The suicide attack during a busy time of day was the first inside Israel
since Dec. 5 when an Islamic Jihad bomber killed five Israelis outside a
shopping mall in the coastal city of Netanya. It was also the first
since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke just over
two weeks ago, and represents an early test for this deputy, Ehud
Olmert, who has taken up his powers.
Islamic Jihad is the smaller of two radical Islamic movements in the
Palestinian territories at war with Israel, and has asserted
responsibility for the last five suicide attacks inside Israel,
including this one. Unlike its larger cousin, Hamas, Islamic Jihad has
refused to participate in national elections and remains an organization
whose military wing holds far more clout than its political organization.
Palestinian officials said the bombing was timed to upset the first
Palestinian parliamentary elections in a decade, scheduled to take place
Jan. 25. Islamic Jihad is not planning to participate in those
elections, although Hamas is projected to win roughly one-third of the
132-seat legislature and assume its first role in the national
government. Palestinian officials said the attack was designed to
provoke an Israeli military response that could threaten the vote.
In a statement, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas vowed to punish those
responsible for the attack, whom he called "terrorists who want to
destroy all hopes of peace and democracy."
"This terrorist attack aims to disrupt the open atmosphere leading up to
democratic elections and sabotage the measures the PA is taking to
maintain security and calm in the occupied Palestinian territory," Abbas
said in the statement.
The bomber was identified as Sami Abed al-Haseez Antar, 22, from the
West Bank city of Nablus. The most recent suicide attacks inside Israel
were carried out by Islamic Jihad members from the region around
Tulkarm, west of Nablus, along the border with Israel.
Israeli officials said the attack highlighted the inability of Abbas,
who is running a weak and nearly bankrupt government, to fulfill his
pledge to rein in radical groups that do not recognize Israel. Islamic
Jihad has strayed several times from the temporary cease-fire Abbas
consolidated last March, and Hamas leaders have recently said that the
agreement no longer applies after expiring at the end of last year.
"Even if we know that Islamic Jihad is taking responsibility we also
know Hamas is helping them," said Ambassador Gideon Meir, a senior
Israeli foreign ministry official. "We know there is cooperation on
terrorist attacks. To us they are all the same on this."
Meir said he did not expert Olmert, who will be leading the centrist
Kadima party into Israel's March 28 elections unless Sharon makes a
remarkable recovery, to change his position on allowing Palestinians in
East Jerusalem to vote next week while prohibiting Hamas from
campaigning in the city. But he said the attack "emphasizes once again
that terrorist organizations cannot have a role in democracy. Democracy
and terror cannot exist."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/19/AR2006011901438.html
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