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December 5, 2005
Israel: Islamic Jihad Claim Netanya Suicide Attack
This morning, in the first suicide bombing since the blast at Hadera market six weeks ago, which killed six, a blast ripped through the area outside the Sharon mall in Netanya.
The coastal town of Netanya lies above Tel Aviv, and the mall was the scene of a blast on July 12 this year when five were killed in an attack by Islamic Jihad. This group was responsible for the Hadera market blast on October 26. The Sharon mall was also the scene of an earlier suicide attack from May, 2001, which killed five people.
This morning's blast killed at least five people and injured more than 30 others, state news sources Haaretz, YNet News, Arutz Sheva and Reuters.
The explosion happened at 11,30 local time. A Gaza radio station broadcast soon after the attack that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade had ordered the suicide bombing, but later Hizbollah TV claimed that the atrocity was the work of Islamic Jihad.
The suicide bomber had apparently approached the mall and then blew himself up near the Herzi Street bridge. Avi Sasson, assistant police officer for the area, said two guards at the mall entrance had halted the bomber at gun-point, and had asked him to remove his hands from his pockets. It was then that he detonated his explosives.
Ami Klein, a lawyer who saw the event, told Israel radio that the bomber had tried to enter the mall, was unable to enter, and then he blew himself up.
Another witness, Yisrael Klein said Channel Two television "There was a boom and there was a flash. Seconds later, people were lying on the ground, some wounded and some dead. The most horrific sight was the severed head of the terrorist."
Injured shoppers and passers-by were taken to the Laniado Hospital in Netanya, Meir Hospial, Kfar Saba and Hillel Yaffe hospital in Hadera a few miles north of Netanya. Seven of the wounded were in a serious condition.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 5, 2005 7:41 AM
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