SUICIDE BOMBER STRIKES AT TEL AVIV CAFE : THREE OTHERS DEAD, 46 WOUNDED; HAMAS CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY.Byline: John Donnelly John W. Donnelly was born September 23 1906 in Iowa. He is a National Senior Games Champion and a gold medal winner in Florida Senior Games State Championships in table tennis. He began playing the game in high school. Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire A suicide bomber Noun 1. suicide bomber - a terrorist who blows himself up in order to kill or injure other people act of terrorism, terrorism, terrorist act - the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political who walked into the courtyard of a trendy cafe Friday with a knapsack of nail-studded explosives blew himself up, killing three women eating lunch - and turning the festive holiday of Purim into a bloody battleground. The blast injured 46 people, many of them children. In the chaos afterward, two preschoolers dressed in Purim costumes as a clown and a cowboy ran screaming into the street, and lying on the floor of the cafe was a 6-month-old baby girl crying next to a severely wounded woman. The militant wing of the Islamic group Noun 1. Islamic Group - a clandestine group of southeast Asian terrorists organized in 1993 and trained by al-Qaeda; supports militant Muslims in Indonesia and the Philippines and has cells in Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia Hamas claimed responsibility for the blast, which ended a year without suicide bombings in Israel. Friday's attack recalled the previous one last Purim, only four blocks down the street, that killed 13 people. This bomb's full impact on the extremely fragile Middle East peace process won't be sorted out for days, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasted no time in placing the full blame on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Netanyahu repeated a charge made earlier this week that Arafat had given the ``green light'' to militants to attack Israel. ``The Palestinian Authority Palestinian Authority (PA) or Palestinian National Authority, interim self-government body responsible for areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Palestinian control. . . . bears a grave responsibility,'' an angry Netanyahu said at Ichilov Hospital, where many of the wounded were being treated. Arafat telephoned his condolences first to Israeli President Ezer Weizman and then to Netanyahu late Friday. Arafat expressed his sorrow and condemned the attack. Netanyahu demanded more. He asked Arafat to jail about 120 Hamas activists released from jail in the last week, saying that if he didn't, ``the peace process was in danger,'' according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a statement released by the prime minister's office The Prime Minister's Office is a small department which provides advice to a Prime Minister in some countries:
About the time of the attack, Hamas military leader Ibrahim Maqadmeh spewed his hatred of Jews before a rally of 50,000 people in Khan Yunis Khan Yunis (Arabic: خان يونس; literally Jonah's Inn) is a city and adjacent refugee camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. in the Gaza Strip Gaza Strip (gäz`ə), (2003 est. pop. 1,330,000) rectangular coastal area, c.140 sq mi (370 sq km), SW Asia, on the Mediterranean Sea adjoining Egypt and Israel, in what was formerly SW Palestine. , about 50 miles south of Tel Aviv Tel Aviv (tĕl əvēv`), city (1994 pop. 355,200), W central Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea. Oficially named Tel Aviv–Jaffa, it is Israel's commercial, financial, communications, and cultural center and the core of its largest . Maqadmeh was one of the recently freed Hamas members. ``Jerusalem,'' Maqadmeh said, ``will not be restored by negotiations, but only with holy war, whatever the sacrifices. . . . We must pursue the Jews whether they be in Tel Aviv or Latin America.'' Arab affairs commentator Ehud Yaari said, ``I don't think it was chance'' that Maqadmeh's speech coincided with the Tel Aviv attack. President Clinton condemned the attack in a statement from Helsinki, Finland, where he held a summit meeting with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. ``There is no place for such acts of terror and violence in the peace process,'' Clinton said. But, contradicting Netanyahu, Clinton also said that no one should doubt that the Palestinian Authority is ``unalterably opposed to terror.'' Israeli intelligence agents had warned of an upsurge of violence Friday as a result of this week's beginning of construction of a Jewish housing project on land in Arab East Jerusalem. In the West Bank, the situation deteriorated rapidly Friday in the hours before the Tel Aviv bombing. Clashes broke out in Hebron, Bethlehem and near the East Jerusalem construction site, called Har Homa in Hebrew and Jabal Abu Ghneim in Arabic. Fighting was especially ferocious in Hebron, where a crowd of about 1,000 Palestinians pelted Israeli army jeeps with rocks, while Israeli soldiers fired tear gas tear gas, gas that causes temporary blindness through the excessive flow of tears resulting from irritation of the eyes. The gas is used in chemical warfare and as a means for dispersing mobs. , rubber bullets and live ammunition at the rioters. Nearby hospitals filled with Palestinians being treated for tear gas inhalation. After the Tel Aviv bombing, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai immediately barred Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip For the West Bank and Gaza Strip please see one of the following:
In Tel Aviv, witnesses said they remembered an ``eccentric-looking'' man with close-cropped hair who walked into the Apropo Coffee House on Ben Gurion Boulevard about 1:45 p.m. It took him a little while to find a seat; the cafe was almost full. It was a warm afternoon, the first balmy day in weeks. The man chose a table near the center of the whitewashed cafe's courtyard, which is shaded by three large cabbage palm trees and numerous white umbrellas. ``He didn't look Arab,'' said Alex Morrison, who was wounded slightly in the attack. ``I noticed him because he just looked out of place. He had a great big bag. The explosion took place about three minutes after he arrived. I saw his body afterward.'' |
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