Independent UK
Three killed by Palestinian teenager in suicide-bomb attack at Tel Aviv market
By Donald Macintyre in Tel Aviv
02 November 2004
A teenage suicide bomber killed three people and wounded more than 30 others when he blew himself up yesterday in a crowded open-air market in Tel Aviv.
The small Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack outside a cheese and spice shop. It happened at 11.15am when shoppers were thronging through the popular Carmel Market where stall-holders said Arabs as well as Jews were among the workers.
The bomber, who had 11lb of explosives strapped to him as he entered the market in one of the more dilapidated parts of the city, was named by relatives as Amer Abdel Rahman Abdullah, known as al-Far, from the Askar refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Medics reported eight of the injured to be in serious condition, with two critical. One of the dead was named last night as Shmuel Levy, 65, from Jaffa.
The suicide bombing which came amid a new period of instability as more moderate leaders seek to control the Palestinian Authority in the absence of the ailing Yasser Arafat was the first since a Palestinian woman bomber blew herself up at a central intersection in Jerusalem, killing two border policemen on 22 September, and the deadliest since two simultaneous bus bombs in the southern city of Beersheeva killed 16 people on 31 August.
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, said the attack proved that there has been no change in the Palestinian Authority. He added: "The State of Israel has not stopped and will not stop its war on the murderous terrorism operating against us ... Words, promises and half-hearted condemnations will not suffice. We demand full implementation of the Palestinian commitments."
At the scene, paramedics removed at least two bodies in black plastic bags as rescue workers dug among sacks of produce inside the store in search of body parts severed by the blast. Although structural damage to the store was limited because of the relatively small size of the bomb, the explosion ripped the store's sign away and damaged a neighbouring vegetable stall, scattering lettuce and parsley on to the pavement which was still spattered with dried blood 90 minutes after the blast.
Amnon Tovi, the owner of a greengrocer's shop near by, said he had been serving customers when, "I suddenly heard a man shout. I turned round and and I saw a streak of what looked like lightning.
"Because many of our Arab cousins work here I couldn't believe it was a bombing. I thought it must be a gas explosion or something like that." He added: "After I saw that I was all right myself, I went over to where the explosion had been and saw the suicide bomber without a hand or leg. I saw a woman lying there but the police didn't let me get closer."
Mr Tovi said he hoped shoppers would continue to come to the market to deny the perpetrators a victory and "show solidarity with us".
David Hayu, 56, who owns a butcher's shop across from the store, said: The explosion was huge, there was fire and smoke ... it knocked me over.
"No one knew what to do. People were looking for their sons, their daughters, their husbands and wives."
Itzhak Cohen, 51, who runs a fish shop in the market, said: "I was sitting outside when I heard a very loud boom and saw a flash of fire. I saw two people with their legs blown off. There hasn't been a bomb here before and there was no real security or police around here." One shopper, Michal Weizman, told Israel Army Radio: "I saw lots of people lying on the ground, lots of people wounded. There was a woman whose entire body was torn up, all her body was torn up."
The exact age of the bomber was disputed last night. While security officials were quoted putting his age at 16 making him one of the youngest suicide bombers his uncle, Muhammed, said the boy was 17.
The bomber's mother, Samira Abdullah, 45, said he had been behaving strangely in recent days, praying with unusual devotion and showing her special affection. His father, Abdel Rahim, said Amer had woken him early yesterday and asked for two shekels (30p). "Two shekels, that's what boys ask for: it's not money for men," he said. "He kissed me on the cheek and hand and left. I went back to sleep." Mrs Abdullah said the people who had sent her son to Tel Aviv were wrong to exploit someone too young to understand the implications of his act. "It's immoral to send someone so young," she said. "They should have sent an adult who understands the meaning of his deeds."
Israeli media quoted security officials as saying the bomber arrived with the explosives on Sunday night at Abu Dis in east Jerusalem and was planning to carry out the attack in the capital. Officials speculated that he decided to travel to Tel Aviv instead because of strict security at crowded areas in Jerusalem. Security forces had not received a specific warning of a terror attack planned for Tel Aviv, but they said they had received 44 warnings of planned attacks on Israelis.
SOURCE
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