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Terrorism

Five killed in ?suicide? bombing


By Stan Goodenough
December 05, 2005

A bomb-packing Arab acting on behalf of the ?Palestinian people? blew himself up outside a shopping mall in the coastal town of Netanya Monday morning, killing at least five people, among them two women, and wounding 49.

Only the alertness of the mall?s security team, who reportedly accosted the bomber and prevented him from entering the premises, kept the death toll relatively low.

One of the wounded was reported in a critical condition, five were said to be seriously hurt and 10 moderately wounded.

?Palestinian? groups vied with one another to take credit for the attack.

The Fatah?s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade was first to claim responsibility. Shortly afterwards Hizb?allah radio in Beirut, Lebanon said the Palestine Islamic Jihad was responsible for the attack, which deliberately targeted civilians who were out shopping on an unseasonably warm December day.

Shortly after the attack, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas said the PA condemned the attack, while his spokesman, Sa?eb Erekat, denounced the bombing for ?harming Palestinian interests.?

Neither man condemned the cowardly and cold-blooded nature of the killings.

An angry-looking Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, appeared on television to condemn the outrage which, he warned, would only harm the ?chances for peace.?

Defense Minister Sha?ul Mofaz, (who earlier in the day, in response to Sunday?s upsurge in Kassam rocket attacks from Gaza, gave the green light for the IDF to resume targeted killings of terrorists), was reportedly planning Israel?s response to the bombing.

Monday?s bombing was the second ?suicide? attack in Netanya in the last five months, and comes after a day of heightened tension that saw an intensification of Kassam rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israelis communities.

Eye witnesses described the blast as more powerful than previous ones.

An hour after the bombing Israeli media reported the country?s forces were on alert throughout the land. Shortly after midday the authorities announced that there were 59 terror alerts in place.

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