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Suicide bomber kills three after Israeli attacksThursday 23 May 2002
author: Phil Reeves in the Independent/London
summary
Palestinian militants showed last night that they had resorted anew to persistent suicide bombings, with an attack that reportedly killed at least three people and injured about 20.
Suicide bomber kills two after Israeli attacks
By Phil Reeves in Jerusalem
23 May 2002
Palestinian militants showed last night that they had resorted anew to persistent suicide bombings, with an attack that reportedly killed at least three people and injured about 20.
It was the fourth suicide attack, or attempted attack, in as many days, giving rise to fears that the bombings are returning to the levels of the period before Israel launched its military offensive in the occupied West Bank nearly two months ago.
Last night's attack happened in a street in the centre of Rishon Letzion, south of Tel Aviv, not far from where a suicide bomber killed 15 people a fortnight ago when he blew himself up in a pool hall. Unconfirmed reports said the bomb killed four people, including the bomber. A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, called it another "cowardly act of terror", and added: "We will use whatever measures are needed to root it out".
The blast came less than two hours after the Israeli army assassinated four Palestinians, including a West Bank militant leader and, reportedly, a civilian in Nablus.
Palestinian sources said Mahmoud Titti, 30, commander of the local branch of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was killed with two others from the militant group when Israeli tanks opened fired from a hilltop. An Arab passer-by was also killed in the attack, which happened at a cemetery in the Balata refugee camp, the sources said.
"Israel is provoking retaliation from the al-Aqsa Martyrs, which will heighten the war," said Husan Khadr, a Fatah official in Nablus. "Israel has returned to assassinations, and this is very dangerous."
The Israeli armed forces confirmed that it had "targeted" Mr Titti. In a statement, the Israeli military described him as a "senior terrorist'' who was responsible for many attacks against Israelis.
The attack brought to six the number of Palestinians who were killed by troops yesterday.
Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian near a checkpoint on the road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Moussa Daraghmeh, 35, was among a group of about 20 workers who tried to circumvent a roadblock.
The army said Mr Daraghmeh was shot after making a suspicious movement. It said the incident was under investigation by two departments in the security forces. Previous Israeli investigations into the killing of Palestinian civilians by soldiers have rarely led to disciplinary or legal action.
The army also said a Palestinian carrying a gun, a bomb and part of a missile died near Jenin when he blew himself
up, apparently by accident, ending what it believes was an attempted suicide mission. Palestinian sources identified yesterday's suspected bomber at Jenin as a militant from the Islamic Jihad group. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Rishon Letzion bombing.
The killing of the four in Nablus came at a time when a buoyant Mr Sharon, who is supposed to approve each assassination by the Israeli army, is riding high in the polls in Israel, fortified by what seems to have been a successful outcome to his clash with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.
Yesterday, he appeared to be about to reshape his government into a narrower coalition, having fired four Shas ministers on Monday and a clutch of deputy ministers from the small United Torah Judaism party, for refusing to vote in the Knesset for an emergency package of spending cuts.
Mr Sharon said that he would not retract the sackings. "The break with these parties is final. The matter is closed," he said, after the Bill passed on a second reading.
Mr Sharon, who has won much domestic applause for taking on Shas, was expected to shore up his coalition by recruiting the small centrist Shinui party to its ranks.