By Rafael D. Frankel
TEL AVIV—The Israeli Army readied itself for an offensive and imposed a near total closure of the West Bank and Gaza strip Tuesday in response to Monday’s suicide bombing by Islamic Jihad that killed five people in the seaside city of Netanya.
Palestinians were barred entrance into Israel for nearly all reasons and the only crossing which remained open was the goods-only terminal at Karni, between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
After a late Monday night security cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the army also arrested the father and three brothers of the suicide bomber over night along with at least ten other Palestinians suspected of belonging to Islamic Jihad.
Whenever the army begins its imminent offensive, which will focus on Islamic Jihad cells, it will also have permission to use assassinations (Israel calls them "targeted killings") and probably house demolitions as well, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said.
"We decided to operate in a much broader, much deeper and more intensive manner against the Islamic Jihad infrastructure, and I hope that we will be able to prevent such attacks in the future," Mofaz told Army Radio after the security meeting.
Though the army will likely retake areas where Islamic Jihad cells are active, Government Spokesman Ra’anan Gissin said the action is not expected to reach the scale of Operation Defensive Shield launched in 2002. In that operation, Israel retook control of most West Bank cities and killed dozens of Palestinian militants
"But we are going to use what is at our disposal to bring this to an end," Gissin said. "We will pay house calls. Either they will be brought to justice, or we will bring justice to them."
U.S. Ambassador Richard Jones told reporters here Tuesday that Israel had a right to defend its citizens. "We have called repeatedly on the Palestinian Authority to take actions against these terror groups, in particular Islamic Jihad," he said. "We are doing everything we can to persuade the Palestinian Authority to shoulder its responsibility as a partner for peace."
With pressure mounting on the Palestinian Authority to reign in militants, PA security forces also arrested three suspected Islamic Jihad members in the northern West Bank.
Though he has harshly criticized violent acts against Israel as counter-productive to the Palestinian cause, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has shied away from confrontation with militant groups, seeking instead to negotiate cease-fires and bring them into the Palestinian political process.
Israeli officials, however, were not impressed with the arrests, with Gissin saying the PA cannot employ "a revolving door policy" towards jailing terrorists.
Islamic Jihad has been responsible for all four suicide attacks which killed Israelis this year, and the latest bombing was met with disbelief by the family of the bomber.
Before the army arrested her sons and husband, suicide bomber Lotfi Amine Abu Saada’s mother, Amina, said "those who sent him have fooled him," the Associated Press reported. "My son is a poor soul. He doesn't know anything about this, he was never jailed and he never participated in demonstrations."
His father, Amin, claimed his son was illiterate while his uncle, Mufid Rashed, said Monday was the first time Abu Saada missed work.
"I am not convinced, I don't believe this. My son can't even get to the city alone, how can he get to Netanya? He doesn't read or write," the AP reported the father saying.
©2005 Rafael D. Frankel and The New York Daily News
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Monday, December 05, 2005
Suicide bomber kills 5 in Netanya
By Rafael D. Frankel
NETANYA, Israel—Five people were killed and over 40 injured Monday when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a popular mall in this coastal city.
The blast tore through the concrete wall of the Canyon Ha Shomron mall and sent glass from the above façade crashing down to the crowded sidewalk below. There it laid for hours after among body parts, a pair of boots, shopping bags, and the leaves of a nearby tree which were blown off in the blast.
Pieces of burnt and bloodied flesh were sent 50 yards in every direction and blood stained the mall wall as high as 20 feet above ground after what both an Israeli police spokesman and an NYPD counter-terrorism expert said was anunusually large explosion.
However a far greater loss of life was prevented by the diligence of private mall security guards and three or four policemen who identified the bomber as suspicious and, with weapons drawn, ordered him to the side of the entrance, Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
"The fact that the security guard and policemen managed to identify the bomber meant that they prevented a major disaster," Israeli Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi said. Though reports were unclear as of press time, at least one security guard was killed and police officers were among the injured.
The terrorist group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack and named 21-year-old Lutfi Amin Abu Salem, from the nearby West Bank village of Kafr Rai, as the bomber. Shortly after the bombing, the group released avideo of Abu Salem posing with a grenade launcher and an assault rifle.
Buchnik Gal, 36, who was stopped in his car at a traffic light directly across from the entrance to the mall said after the explosion there were “lots of bodies on the ground and on the road and people yelling out.”
The driver’s side window on Gal’s car was blown out and the front windshield was cracked in the explosion which also deposited a piece of flesh in the door slot where his window was. Additionally, a ball bearing shot through the shell of his car just one inch from the gas tank. (Suicide bombers here often pack their bombs with ball bearings to maximize injuries and damage.)
This was the third bombing of the Canyon Ha Shomron mall since the last intifada began more than five years ago.
The attack comes at a time of heightened tensions in Israel after a series of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israeli towns the last two days, prompting Israel to retaliate with artillery fire into the territory recently evacuated by the Israeli civilians and the army.
No life was lost in those attacks and counter-attacks, but just hours before the suicide bombing, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced the IDF was authorized to resume its assassinations of Palestinian militants both in Gaza and the West Bank.
Though Palestinian militant groups signed on to a cease-fire with Israel at the beginning of the year, Islamic Jihad has nonetheless been responsiblefor at least five suicide bombings since then, and leaders in Damascus, Syria, had recently said they would likely not extend the cease fire beyond the end of the year.
The bombing drew a harsh verbal response from Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who said "the Palestinian Authority will not go easy on whoever is proved to be responsible" and that he would issue arrest orders for anyone connected with the attack.
However Israeli officials were skeptical of his promise, saying Abbas had talked tough before but had not delivered results. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom called the attack "additional proof of the inaction of the Palestinian Authority under [Abbas]. He added: "The leadership of the Palestinian Authority is refusing to act against the terror organizationsand to dismantle them."
Government Spokesman Ra’anan Gissin further accused Syria, Iran, and the terrorist group Hezbollah, which operates in southern Lebanon, of encouraging the attack to deflect growing international pressure against them.
IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz warned Sunday that he does not think diplomacy will compel Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program and Iran fired back that any Israeli attack would be met with a harsh reply.
©2005 Rafael D. Frankel and The New York Daily News
NETANYA, Israel—Five people were killed and over 40 injured Monday when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a popular mall in this coastal city.
The blast tore through the concrete wall of the Canyon Ha Shomron mall and sent glass from the above façade crashing down to the crowded sidewalk below. There it laid for hours after among body parts, a pair of boots, shopping bags, and the leaves of a nearby tree which were blown off in the blast.
Pieces of burnt and bloodied flesh were sent 50 yards in every direction and blood stained the mall wall as high as 20 feet above ground after what both an Israeli police spokesman and an NYPD counter-terrorism expert said was anunusually large explosion.
However a far greater loss of life was prevented by the diligence of private mall security guards and three or four policemen who identified the bomber as suspicious and, with weapons drawn, ordered him to the side of the entrance, Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
"The fact that the security guard and policemen managed to identify the bomber meant that they prevented a major disaster," Israeli Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi said. Though reports were unclear as of press time, at least one security guard was killed and police officers were among the injured.
The terrorist group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack and named 21-year-old Lutfi Amin Abu Salem, from the nearby West Bank village of Kafr Rai, as the bomber. Shortly after the bombing, the group released avideo of Abu Salem posing with a grenade launcher and an assault rifle.
Buchnik Gal, 36, who was stopped in his car at a traffic light directly across from the entrance to the mall said after the explosion there were “lots of bodies on the ground and on the road and people yelling out.”
The driver’s side window on Gal’s car was blown out and the front windshield was cracked in the explosion which also deposited a piece of flesh in the door slot where his window was. Additionally, a ball bearing shot through the shell of his car just one inch from the gas tank. (Suicide bombers here often pack their bombs with ball bearings to maximize injuries and damage.)
This was the third bombing of the Canyon Ha Shomron mall since the last intifada began more than five years ago.
The attack comes at a time of heightened tensions in Israel after a series of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israeli towns the last two days, prompting Israel to retaliate with artillery fire into the territory recently evacuated by the Israeli civilians and the army.
No life was lost in those attacks and counter-attacks, but just hours before the suicide bombing, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced the IDF was authorized to resume its assassinations of Palestinian militants both in Gaza and the West Bank.
Though Palestinian militant groups signed on to a cease-fire with Israel at the beginning of the year, Islamic Jihad has nonetheless been responsiblefor at least five suicide bombings since then, and leaders in Damascus, Syria, had recently said they would likely not extend the cease fire beyond the end of the year.
The bombing drew a harsh verbal response from Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who said "the Palestinian Authority will not go easy on whoever is proved to be responsible" and that he would issue arrest orders for anyone connected with the attack.
However Israeli officials were skeptical of his promise, saying Abbas had talked tough before but had not delivered results. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom called the attack "additional proof of the inaction of the Palestinian Authority under [Abbas]. He added: "The leadership of the Palestinian Authority is refusing to act against the terror organizationsand to dismantle them."
Government Spokesman Ra’anan Gissin further accused Syria, Iran, and the terrorist group Hezbollah, which operates in southern Lebanon, of encouraging the attack to deflect growing international pressure against them.
IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz warned Sunday that he does not think diplomacy will compel Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program and Iran fired back that any Israeli attack would be met with a harsh reply.
©2005 Rafael D. Frankel and The New York Daily News