Bomb Rocks Israeli Restaurant Killing A 15-Year-Old Girl And Wounding Eight People

June 11, 2002

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a busy sandwich shop in the Israeli coastal town of Herzliya on Tuesday, killing a 15-year-old girl and wounding eight people.

The attack followed new Israeli raids in the West Bank after U.S. President George W. Bush closed ranks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington. Highlights of that meeting included Mr. Bush's support for Israel's right to defend itself against the Palestinians.

Tel Aviv police commander Yossi Sedbon said the bomber was killed in the attack. Two of the eight survivors were moderately injured, the other six suffered lesser wounds.

Joel Leyden, who arrived minutes after the blast, said the target of the attack was a small Middle East-style restaurant. He said, "the suicide bomber blew himself up inside the restaurant." He said police found another bomb on his body and were dismantling it, moving people away from the scene first.

Earlier, a bomb exploded near a road outside the West Bank city of Hebron, injuring three Israeli teen-agers preparing to board a bus after picking olives.

The bomb blast near Hebron occurred after about 40 Israeli teen-agers had helped pick olives, and were returning to board a bus near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. Hebron is divided between more than 100,000 Palestinians and a small enclave of a few hundred Jewish settlers.

Three 15-year-old boys were taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem to be treated for leg, arm and chest wounds, the hospital said. One was seriously injured.

Israel Radio said the bus was armored, like many vehicles transporting Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that it appeared the wounded had been standing outside the bus at the time of the blast.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, the Israeli army staged a new raid on the town of Tulkarem and maintained a siege at Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's battered compound in Ramallah for a second day.

Meanwhile, Palestinian police in Hebron said they found the bodies of two Palestinians suspected of providing Israel with information that helped the army kill a local militia leader on April 23.

Police said they found spent cartridges close to the bodies, one of which was discovered in the exact spot where Marwan Zalloum - the local leader of a militia group affiliated with Arafat's Fatah faction - was gunned down by an Israeli helicopter.

After Zalloum was killed, vigilantes from his militia broke into a jail and dragged out three other suspected collaborators, shot them dead and threw them into a street, where a mob mutilated their bodies. Dozens of other suspected collaborators have been killed since the Palestinian uprising erupted 20 months ago.

In Tulkarem, about 10 Israeli tanks and 15 jeeps entered the city and several nearby Palestinian villages, conducting searches and preventing residents from leaving their homes. The army said soldiers were looking for militants, though no arrests were reported.

The Israeli army has been conducting almost daily in-and-out raids of Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank.

The incursions - which follow a wide-scale military operation in the West Bank that ended in May - are often brief, sometimes lasting just a few hours. The army says the raids are meant to thwart suicide bombings.

Israeli troops entered Ramallah in force early Monday, encircling Arafat's compound and clamping a curfew on the Palestinian commercial hub.

The army said it has detained more than 30 suspects in Ramallah, including a suicide bomber who was preparing to attack. The army also says soldiers found two car bombs containing a total of about 135 pounds of explosives.

The army said it was encircling Arafat's compound to prevent gunmen from seeking refuge there. It did not attack the headquarters itself as it did last Thursday, when soldiers blew up three buildings in retaliation for the suicide bombing a day earlier.

Outside his headquarters, the army blocked roads with earthen barricades and piles of rubble. Streets remained deserted and the army prevented journalists from entering the city, which it declared a closed military zone.

On Monday in Washington, President Bush supported Israel's "right to defend herself" after his meeting with Sharon. The Israeli leader reiterated his position that violence must end before peace negotiations can begin. He also stressed again his belief that there can be no successful talks so long as Arafat remains in power.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo alleged that the Israeli raids were part of Sharon's attempt to undermine "the reform process."

The latest Israeli incursions came a day after Arafat announced a revamped Cabinet, which was to hold its first meeting Monday at the compound. The session was canceled due to the Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers lining the streets around the complex, which covers a full city block.

Sharon "doesn't want a strong Palestinian Authority," Abed Rabbo said. "He wants to weaken the Palestinian Authority and to destroy the Palestinian infrastructure."

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