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Suicide bomber: Bomber kills 19 Israelis as peace plan stalls
Compiled from Times wires NETANYA, Israel -- Members of the Donenhirsch family excitedly took their seats around a table in a hotel banquet room Wednesday, dressed in their holiday finery and ready to usher in the Passover holiday. Moments later, they were thrown against a wall by an enormous explosion. "Suddenly, it was hell," history teacher Nechama Donenhirsch, 52, said from her hospital bed. "My daughter, 16 years old, held me and said to me to calm me, 'You are alive. I'm alive. Don't worry, we are alive.' " The suicide bombing at the Park Hotel in the Mediterranean resort of Netanya killed 19 Israelis and the bomber and wounded more than 120 guests. The bomber, a 25-year-old member of the Islamic militant group Hamas, knew his target well. He used to work in hotels in Netanya and other Israeli cities, Palestinian police said. Israeli officials and commentators said the bombing, one of the two deadliest in 18 months of violence, could trigger a harsh military response and torpedo U.S.-brokered cease-fire negotiations. The talks, under way for nearly two weeks, have failed to produce a breakthrough or a sharp decline in bloodshed. President Bush called on the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, to do everything in his power to stop the suicide attacks. "This callous, this cold-blooded killing, it must stop," he said. "I condemn it in the strongest of terms." About 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, more than 200 guests began taking their seats in the Park Hotel banquet hall, ready for the Passover seder, a ritual meal commemorating the exodus of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Round tables were covered with white linen and elaborate Seder place settings. Guests were dressed in their holiday finest -- women in festive dresses and men in white shirts and dark pants. About that time, the bomber passed an armed guard at the hotel entrance. The assailant, later identified as Abdel Baset Odeh from the West Bank town of Tulkarm, was carrying a large bag with explosives but did not arouse the guard's suspicions. Witnesses said they had noticed a suspicious man with long hair and a ski cap walk through the lobby to the dining room, ignoring a clerk's inquiries about where he was headed. "(My father) told my mother, 'Look at him, who is that? What is he doing here?' " Yoel Lagerlauf, who was having dinner with his parents from Sweden, told Israel radio. "He was really strange. Then, the dining room suddenly exploded." The blast tore through the hall, blowing out windows and walls, overturning tables and chairs. "There was the smell of smoke and dust in my mouth and a ringing in my ears," said Donenhirsch, her eyes red from crying. She said pieces of ceiling fell on her sister's head and her son, Itai, yelled for everyone to take cover under tables. The explosion knocked out the electricity, plunging the hall into darkness as people screamed for help. Itai Donenhirsch said the family sat just three or four yards from where the bomber blew himself up. "I felt shock waves and was pushed under the table and everything blacked out," he said. Nechama Donenhirsch said that as she and her relatives ran from the inferno, they saw a little girl, maybe 10 to 12 years old, lying on the ground. "The face of the little girl was so nice, it was as if she was surprised -- big, big open eyes -- but surely dead," Nechama Donenhirsch said. "We ran ... over dead people, all in pieces." At least 25 of the injured were reported to be in serious condition, including children aged 5 and 8, and local medical facilities were so overwhelmed that some of the wounded had to be treated in a hospital cafeteria and a synagogue. Many of the victims, who were seated, had head and chest wounds. Six hospitals in three cities treated the victims. "This is not just terror," said Public Security Minister Uzi Landau. "This is a massacre." Israeli officials blamed Arafat and his Palestinian Authority for the attack, insisting he has done nothing to arrest militants or rein in Hamas or other militant groups. "That is why they are responsible for this horrible crime," said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. "Israel will be able to bring the perpetrators and planners, who have lost any trace of humanity, to justice." After the bombing, Arafat telephoned the U.S. special envoy to the Mideast, Anthony Zinni, and denied he was behind the attack, Israeli television reported. A statement from Arafat's Palestinian Authority condemned the attack, which it said was aimed at the Arab League summit conference under way in Beirut, Zinni's mission and a peace initiative put forward at the summit by Saudi Arabia. "In light of the dangerous aims of this operation, the Palestinian Authority will not take lightly the parties that have taken responsibility for it," said the statement. "And it will take harsh measures to bring those responsible to justice." Palestinians have carried out dozens of suicide bombings since the violence erupted but Wednesday night's was one of the most devastating. Only an attack on Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium disco, which killed 21 last June, has taken more lives. All Israeli security forces were on their highest states of alert as the Passover holiday approached. Netanya, popular with vacationing Israelis and mostly Jewish tourists, was one of the most heavily policed cities. -- Information from the Associated Press, Washington Post and Cox News Service was used in this report.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
