Suicide bombing is 3rd at mall
Associated PressPublished December 6, 2005
NETANYA, Israel - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up among shoppers outside a mall Monday, killing at least five people and putting pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for a tough response in a fierce election campaign.
Sharon held an emergency meeting of his security Cabinet to decide how to respond to the attack, which wounded 40 people, while Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas threatened his own strong action against those responsible.
An Israeli driver who spotted the bomber carrying a suspicious bag toward the mall alerted police. A mall security guard hustled him away from the entrance and pushed him against a wall, where the bomber detonated his explosives. The guard was among the five people killed, police said.
The bombing was the fifth since a truce took effect in February. Islamic Jihad, a militant group that has carried out all five of the attacks, claimed responsibility, saying the bombing was retaliation for Israeli killings of its leaders.
The attack was the third since 2001 in precisely the same place: just outside the main entrance to the Sharon Mall in Netanya. The three bombings, which included attacks in May 2001 and July 12 of this year, have killed 15 people.
Israel and the Palestinians are in the middle of election campaigns, and more violence could hurt both Sharon and Abbas, who say they support returning to the internationally backed "road map" peace plan.
The force of the blast was evident from the blood that was smeared high and wide across the mall's stone wall in at least a dozen places.
Most shopping malls, stores, restaurants and other public buildings in Israel have guards and often metal detectors at the entrances. While such security keeps bombers out, the checks also create lines, which sometimes become targets.
The attack occurred before noon, when a man carrying a black bag crossed the street in front of the mall. An offduty security guard waiting at a red light noticed the man and alerted police in the car behind him - in a scene caught on security cameras and broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 TV.
"Within a second, I knew he looked suspicious," the driver, Nir Hudra, said.
Police Officer Shoshi Attia got out of her car and approached the man, but he started running, she said.
When he put his left hand in the bag, Attia screamed, "Terrorist! Terrorist! Take his hand out of the bag," she told Israeli media from her hospital bed.
"I thought of shooting him," she said. "But there were too many people, and there was a mother with a stroller."
A security guard pushed the bomber away from the crowd waiting to get in, she said.
"I was looking (the bomber) in the eye, and he pressed (the button) and blew up. I flew, and all I remember is that I was looking in his eye, I saw his gaze," she said.
Sharon and top security officials decided later Monday that Israel would cancel the VIP cards issued to senior Palestinian officials - severely restricting their travel - and cease talks on the opening of a passage for Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.
Sharon could be pressured to mount a tough response ahead of the election. Sharon left his hard-line Likud Party to form a new centrist party, saying it would give him more freedom to seek a peace deal with the Palestinians.
The Palestinians have parliamentary elections Jan. 25, and violence could harm Abbas' Fatah party, laying bare its ineffectiveness in its race against the Islamic Hamas group.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said the bombing is "more proof of the ineffectiveness of the Palestinian Authority.
"Israel will act against the terror organizations with all its might and all the means at its disposal. Israel's response will be hard and painful," said Shalom, who is running for the Likud leadership.
Abbas condemned the attack and promised an especially harsh response by his security forces.
"This operation ... against civilians causes the most serious harm to our commitment to the peace process," said a statement issued by Abbas' office.
Islamic Jihad identified the attacker as Lotfi Abu Saada from Illar, a village north of the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
Relatives described Abu Saada, 23, as a primary-school dropout who was illiterate and exploited by his handlers. "My son is a poor soul. He doesn't know anything about this," said his mother, Amina.
--Information from the New York Times and Cox News Service was used in this report.