Palestinians Strike Back: Jerusalem Blast Kills 1, Injures 4
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, July 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – In the heels
of an Israeli air-raid on Gaza that left 18 civilians dead and 176
wounded, a Palestinian resistance suicide bomber wounded four other
people when he blew himself up in downtown Jerusalem Tuesday, July 30,
as Palestinian gunmen shot dead 2 settlers near Nablus.
"There
was an explosion in the center and as a result of it the suicide
bomber died in the place. There are four others injured, lightly to
moderately," Jerusalem police chief Micky Levy told Israel public
television, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Details
were sketchy, but public radio said the explosion occurred in front of
a falafel stand near the Russian Compound, the site of several bars
but also a notorious police interrogation center.
The
latest Palestinian bombing attempt comes in the wake of a bloody
Israeli raid in which 18 civilians were killed and 176 were wounded.
In
an attack that triggered wide international condemnation, including
from the United States, Israel used a U.S.-built F-16 to drop a
one-ton bomb on a densely populated building in Gaza City early
Tuesday, July 23, killing 18 civilians, eleven of them children,
including a two-month-old infant. The target for assassination, Hamas
military chief Salah Shehada, was killed in the attack, along with his
wife and daughter.
Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat accused right-wing Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, who personally approved the strike and congratulated his
forces on "one of the most successful operations," of
continuing a "policy of massacres" and criticized the world
community for failing to speak out.
Several
European and Arab leaders condemned the attack, with U.N. human rights
chief Mary Robinson saying that under international law "the
reckless killing of civilians is absolutely prohibited."
Israel
braced for revenge attacks as Hamas and other Palestinian resistance
groups’ vowed retaliation for the deadly raid.
“This
crime shall not go unpunished,” Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin, said, following the attack.
Meanwhile,
two Jewish settlers were shot dead Tuesday by Palestinian gunmen near
the northern West Bank city of Nablus, settler sources told AFP.
The
settlers from Kfar Tappuah were shot dead in the area of Jamayin, a
Palestinian village in a zone reoccupied by the Israeli occupation
army around 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Nablus, the sources
said.
The
army immediately imposed a curfew on the village, which is under
Palestinian administrative control.
The
death toll since the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation
erupted in September 2000 has reached 2,383 people, including 1,762
Palestinians and 583 Israelis.
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