Suicide bombers die in attacks on Israeli targets
Four Palestinians died in back-to-back suicide attacks on Israeli targets today.
The first attack failed when a truck packed with explosives blew up as it raced at a heavily fortified Israeli army post in the Gaza Strip. The driver was killed.
Later a car bomb exploded near a bus in an Israeli town, killing at least least three people in the car and injuring 27 Israelis.
The Islamic militant group Hamas said it carried out the truck bombing to mark the first anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the car bomb in Hadera, near Tel Aviv.
In the Gaza attack, a Palestinian truck drove at high speed toward the Israeli outpost at the Netzarim junction after bypassing a roadblock, and exploded under Israeli fire, the army said. There were no casualties among the Israeli troops.
Hamas said the driver was killed and identified him as Hussein Nasser. The group said it had filmed the attack and would distribute the footage a practice reminiscent of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas who have been cooperating increasingly with Hamas during eight months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
In Hadera, a car pulled up alongside a bus and exploded, police said.
Police said three bodies believed to be those of the assailants were found near the charred car.
‘‘I heard an enormous explosion, and then I saw the burning car,’’ said passer-by Avi Yehezkel.
The explosion came a week after a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up at a shopping mall in the northern Israeli town of Netanya. Five Israelis were killed in that blast.
Hamas has carried out a series of suicide bombings in recent months. After the Netanya explosion last week, the group said three more assailants were waiting to carry out attacks.
Later police said two were killed in the attack on the bus and 39 injured.
They said he car carrying explosives drove up along side an Israeli bus near the central bus station.
It was not immediately clear whether the explosives went off prematurely or were detonated by the assailants.
Two dismembered bodies were found near the charred, twisted wreckage of the car. A severed head lay in the sand, and paramedics eventually covered it with plastic bags. Police said they believed the two people killed were the assailants.
Thirty-nine Israelis, many of them passengers on the bus, were hurt. Most suffered light injuries. The bus was only slightly damaged. Backpacks and luggage were strewn on the street near the bus.
Hamas identified the Gaza suicide bombers as Hussein Nasser, a 22-year-old student of Islamic culture at the Islamic University in Gaza City. He lived in the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City.
The group released what it said was a farewell video by the bomber. The man in the video wore military camouflage and a headband. He sat on a chair covered by a prayer carpet and read verses from the Koran, the Muslim holy book.
The man said the attack he was about to carry out was in response to the killings of Palestinian children by Israeli troops and Israeli rocket attacks on Palestinian security targets.
