Steve Quayle News Alerts

May 20, 2002
By Ha'aretz Staff and Agencies

The Israel Defense Forces were preparing for military action in the West Bank last night after three Israelis were killed and 56 wounded in a suicide bombing in Netanya.

The injured include one in critical condition and eight who were seriously wounded. Twenty-one people were still hospitalized last night. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The attack took place just after 4 P.M., when the terrorist, apparently dressed in an IDF uniform, blew himself up in a crowded section of Netanya's open-air market. One person was killed instantly, and two others later died of their injuries.

Two of the slain are Yosef Haviv, 70, and Arkady Vieselman, 39, both residents of Netanya. The name of the third fatality had not been released for publication as of press time.

The Palestinian Authority published an official condemnation of the attack, saying that suicide bombings "endanger the Palestinian people, its just cause, its rights, and the future of its dream of a state."

In contrast, the response from Washington was unusually muted. Vice President Dick Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" program: "I think there clearly is a class of bombings" that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat can't rein in. And National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told CNN's "Late Edition" program that "when something like this happens, it should underscore why we need to get the [peace] process moving forward ... People who do these sorts of things clearly do not want the Palestinian people to achieve their dream of a Palestinian state, because Israel is not going to be able to live with a Palestinian state in an atmosphere of terror."

President Moshe Katsav said the bombing once again proved that the PA has no intention of working seriously to stop terrorism. He said he hoped the attack would speed the delegitimization of Arafat.

The PFLP claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station. The defense establishment is investigating reports that the bomber, whose name was not mentioned in the broadcast, was originally from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus. But they believe the attack probably originated in Tul Karm, as the Shin Bet security service had received a warning of a PFLP plan to send a suicide bomber from Tul Karm to Netanya that day. The warning was passed on to the police at about 3 P.M., but the terrorist succeeded in evading the police roadblocks set up in response.

Netanya merchants, however, complained that only a handful of policemen were stationed at the market, and appeared to be taking no special precautions.

Police are also searching for a woman who is suspected of driving the suicide bomber to the market. The woman was seen fleeing the scene shortly after the explosion. But police stressed that she could also be an innocent bystander who fled in simple fear.

Defense sources said that any response would be a limited operation that would focus on arresting terrorists rather than conquering territory. The IDF has carried out many such operations in Nablus, Qalqilyah and Tul Karm in recent weeks.

Israel is also investigating the possibility that the attack was personally ordered by PFLP Secretary-General Ahmed Sa'adat, a senior defense source said. Sa'adat was recently imprisoned in a PA jail in Jericho, under the supervision of British wardens, as part of a U.S.-brokered deal to lift Israel's siege of Arafat's compound in Ramallah.

"In blatant violation of the agreement [ending the siege], Sa'adat and his men have complete freedom of action," the source charged. He said Sa'adat and his men are allowed to use both cellular and regular telephones freely, with no supervision from either the British or Palestinian wardens, and are also allowed to receive visits from other PFLP activists. Both of these enable the jailed activists to transmit instructions for attacks easily, the source noted.

Security sources said that warnings of impending terror attacks by all the Palestinian organizations - Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Arafat's Fatah faction - have become increasingly severe recently. Though the beefed-up IDF presence in the territories helps prevent some of these attacks, "as long as there is no fence along the Green Line, getting from Nablus to Netanya is a piece of cake," said the senior source, adding that the PA is doing nothing to prevent attacks itself.

The quiet ends in Netanya

The bombing shattered a previously quiet Netanya day.

Rescue teams immediately rushed to the scene, evacuating the wounded to Netanya's Laniado Hospital and Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera.

But several Netanya residents noted that more casualties were averted by the fact that the attack occurred on Sunday, which tends to be a quiet day at the market.

Yosef Haviv, one of those killed in the attack, moved to Israel from Iraq at age 18. His son-in-law Itzik said the retiree, a former construction worker, enjoyed walking to the nearby market every day to do the family shopping.

"We always warned him not to walk in the area of the market, but he wasn't afraid," said Itzik. "He always said, `nothing will happen to me.' He loved the market."

Haviv is survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters.

Arkady Vieselman, another victim, narrowly escaped Netanya's last terror attack, the Passover bombing that killed 19 people at the Park Hotel. Vieselman worked as a chef there, and survived that attack because he went to get something from a downstairs freezer moments before the bomb went off. Afterward, related a colleague, he declared: "God must really love us."

Vieselman immigrated from Odessa in 1990. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, his parents and a brother.
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