Israel suicide bombing raises tensions on both sides
A young Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a felafel stand in an open-air marketplace yesterday, killing five Israelis and wounding 30, putting a damper on peace prospects following Israel’s pullout from Gaza a month ago and embarrassing Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the blast in the central Israeli town of Hadera, not far from the West Bank, saying the goal was to avenge the killing of its West Bank leader, Luay Saadi, by Israeli forces this week.
The bomber struck while the Hadera market was bustling a day after being closed for the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
After the attack, the bloodied body of a man in his 50’s lay on the ground among scattered fruits and mangled metal shards. Rescue workers covered other bodies with blankets, walking on pools of blood and shattered glass. A section of the falafel stand’s metal roof hung from a eucalyptus tree high above the market.
Israeli officials blamed Abbas’ government for failing to control extremists. “The Palestinian Authority talks but doesn’t do anything,” Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio.
In a speech before parliament, Abbas lashed out at the militants, saying they must not violate a February cease-fire. “No one has the right to respond here and there, unilaterally,” he said.
Later, Abbas condemned the suicide attack, saying: “It harms Palestinian interests and could widen the cycle of violence, chaos, extremism and bloodshed.”
Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last month raised hopes for a return to Mideast peacemaking after five years of bloodshed. However, the sides have failed to capitalise on the pullout’s momentum, the bombing further dimmed the prospects.
In response, Israeli forces have stepped up their hunt for Islamic Jihad militants. Israeli media reported the military was planning raids in the northern West Bank, where Islamic Jihad operates, as well as isolating the northern West Bank and preventing Palestinian cars from travelling in the area.
In its first move, Israel cancelled a scheduled meeting yesterday between the Israeli and Palestinian communications ministers, the Israeli Communications Ministry said.
:: The Foreign Office said yesterday that it planned to protest “sickening” comments made by the president of Iran calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”
State-run media reported that Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a speech to students yesterday that a new wave of Palestinian attacks would destroy the Jewish state.
In a swipe at some Arab states, Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognise Israel or normalise relations with it.
“There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad told students during a Tehran conference called “The World without Zionism.”
“Ahmadinejad’s comments are deeply disturbing and sickening,” the Foreign Office spokesman said.
