Two Dead, Fifty-Three Wounded In Petah Tikva Suicide Bombing

May 27, 2002
By MAYAAN JAFFE AND DAVID BENDER

A suicide bomber blew up at 6:50 PM in the central shopping center (Em Hamoshavot) in Petach Tikvah, east of Tel Aviv. Two people were killed in the blast, which took place in front of popular coffee shop, near an ice cream parlor and pizzaria.

The two casualties, an adult woman, and a two-year-old toddler, died in hospital after the attack.

In addition, fifty-three people are wounded, eight of them seriously, according to Sharon District Police Chief Aharon Franco, speaking on Israel Television Channel 1. Several of the wounded are infants.

Dozens of the victims have been evacuated to area hospitals suffering from injury and shock.

The 10-kilogram bomb was filled with screws and nails, n order to increase the lethality of the blast.

Franco said police are searching Petah Tikva and the rest of the Sharon area for more terrorists or accomplices.

Fatah-Tanzim al Aksa Brigades, a branch Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, took responsibility for the attack, according to Hizbullah's al Manar Television in Lebanon.

"I was standing near the taxi stand. We heard a huge explosion," an eyewitness who gave his name as Haim told Israel Radio, describing the blast.

"We are talking about children and babies who were sitting with their parents at the cafe near the supermarket."

The bomber shot a security guard before blowing himself up, according to eyewitnesses.

The wounded were transferred to the following hospitals:

* Beilinson Hospital: 125-5134
* Sheba Hospital at the Tel Hashomer Medical Center: 125-5131
* Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba: 125-5199

No area code is necessary when calling the above direct numbers.

Two children who were seriously wounded in the attack were taken to the nearby Schnieder Children's Medical Center.

* Schnieder Children's Medical Center: 03-915-3253

Overseas callers need to dial Israel's country code 972 before the direct number.

The attack comes after the IDF entered Bethlehem, Kalkilya, and Tulkarm in forays over the past few days. IDF units also arrested several terrorist suspects in recent days in those cities as well as in Hebron and other West Bank areas.

The incursions are part of a new tactic of quick raids based on intelligence gathered by Israel's security services, said army spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey. "The large number of warnings ... is worrying and requires us to be wound up as tightly as a spring, to be alert everywhere," Kitrey told Army Radio. "The method is to go to precise locations which we have earmarked."

Israel security officials have been on high alert in recent days, due to a threat of continued attacks.

Rescue Services spokesman Yeruham Mandola said there were about 50 people wounded. He did not give their condition.

Police spokesman Shaul Sionit said, "I know that there was an attack in the supermarket in Em Hamoshavot in Petah Tikva. I know that there are wounded. I have no further details at this stage." Ein Hamoshavot is in the center of the Tel Aviv suburb.

An eyewitness who gave his name as Yonatan said he heard an explosion "and there was a lot of smoke." He said he lives next door to the place where the attack took place.

He said large number of police had arrived at the scene.

Petach Tikvah mayor Yitzhak Ohion told Israel TV, "Em Hamoshavot is a small mall, it is not a big mall, there are usually not a lot of people there." He said it is an outdoor strip mall, and "there is no possibility to have a security guard there."

The PA condemned the attack, saying it's security forces would try to thwart further attacks against Israelis, Israel radio reported.

Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau said in a interview that the fact that the security guard was stationed at the entrance to the mall lessened the effects of the blast.

He said if the bomber had managed to detonate the bomb within the mall, the concussive effect would have likely been far greater.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said, "We have to do whatever possible to beat these things, by military means and also by political means."

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned earlier that there are daily attempts by Palestinians to send suicide attackers into Israel, but most of them are foiled by Israeli forces.

Ben-Eliezer said that despite the warnings, the level of danger to Israel's security posed by Palestinian militants cannot be compared to what it was before "Defensive Shield." That operation was triggered by a suicide bombing in an Israeli hotel that killed 29 people at the start of the Jewish Passover holiday.

"I don't believe that we will ... go back to the territories unless the situation becomes intolerable as it was then," Ben-Eliezer said, referring to the Passover bombing. "Then we had no choice."

Prime Minister Office Spokesman David Baker commeted in the wake of the attack, "Palestinian terror continues to strike out at Israeli woman and children."

[Israel would use] "all the resources at its disposal" to stop terror attacks," he added.

In downtown Ramallah, about 2,000 supporters of Arafat's Fatah movement demonstrated for the release of Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader in the West Bank who taken into Israeli custody last month. Protesters wore shirts with Barghouti's picture on it while others waved Palestinian flags and posters. A recent poll indicated that Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian leader after Arafat.

(With The Associated Press)
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