Posted on 03/23/2004 5:51:15 PM PST by SJackson
(JTA) TEL AVIV – With this week’s suicide bombings in Ashdod, Palestinian terrorists may have hoped to see a toxic cloud hanging over an Israeli city – the embodiment of a new, higher level of terrorism.
Although luck and security spared Israel a chemical cataclysm, Sunday’s double suicide bombing at Israel’s second-largest port devastated scores of families, killing 10 people. The attack wounded at least 16, and raised alarm in the Israeli government.
The two teenage bombers came from the Gaza Strip, and their attack marked the first successful terrorist strike launched by Palestinian infiltrators from the fenced-in strip during the current intifada. Palestinians said the bombers may have tunneled into Israel under the Gaza Strip security fence, then broke through tight Israeli security at the port.
“This comes to show that resistance will continue until the enemy leaves all of occupied Palestinian land,” said Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, whose group is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state.
The Al-Aksa Brigade, the terrorist wing of Yasir Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement, claimed joint responsibility for the attacks along with Hamas.
In response, Israel launched a predawn raid Monday, destroying two metal foundries in Gaza that Hamas used to produce weapons.
Israeli officials also said they would step up their hunt for terrorist leaders and resume the policy of targeted assassinations. One official told Reuters that a strike against Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin would not be ruled out.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ruled out peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, saying it had done nothing to confront terrorists, as required by the U.S.-led road map peace plan.
Shortly after the Ashdod attack, Sharon canceled a planned meeting for Tuesday with the PA prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, despite the customary PA condemnation issued after Sunday’s bombing.
“We are not looking for a photo opportunity,” said Sharon’s spokesman, Ra’anan Gissin. “We want a real undertaking from the Palestinians to crack down on terrorism.”
Speaking at a news conference Monday, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel would not “negotiate by night and bury its dead by day.”
The government’s announcements also raise the possibility that Sharon’s contingency plan for disengagement from the Palestinians – a plan Sharon said he would pursue if there appeared no genuine Palestinian partner for peace – would proceed.
Nevertheless, Sharon won only narrow support for the plan Monday, surviving a vote of confidence in the Knesset by a 46-45 vote. Some members of Sharon’s coalition who oppose the proposed withdrawal refused to vote.
The prime minister will be going to Washington later this month to secure U.S. support for the plan, which involves the dismantlement of most Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and some unilateral moves in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, security officials said Monday they would beef up security around Israel’s ports, including using sniffing dogs and installing electronic fences, news agencies reported.
Israeli security sources said Sunday’s bombers, carrying sophisticated plastic explosives, were headed for the port’s tankers of ammonium and bromine. If ignited, the chemicals would have thrown up a lethal cloud over Ashdod one mile in radius.
As it happened, the first bomber, who had worked nearby as a construction worker, apparently got cold feet.
“He stopped to ask for a glass of water, and one of the guys recognized him as a local laborer. As he was led away, he blew up,” a stevedore told reporters.
Seconds after the first explosion, which tore apart a warehouse for heavy machinery, the bomber’s partner hit his detonator outside the port gate.
The bombs used were more powerful than those used in previous suicide bombings, said Israel’s Southern region police chief, Moshe Karadi.
The double blast, which threw body parts and mangled metal in the air, sent shock waves through a coastal town that has been largely untouched by more than three years of intifada, despite its proximity to the Gaza Strip.
Indeed, authorities assumed the blasts were work accidents until they found two distinct bomb sites and assessed the situation.
The bombers, both of whom died, were identified as 18-year-olds from the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
The only other terrorist attack in Israel that emanated from Gaza during the current intifada was a suicide bombing by two Britons of Pakistani descent at Mike’s Place, a Tel Aviv nightclub, in April 2003.
Those terrorists, posing as tourists who had traveled through Gaza, used the same plastic explosives as Sunday’s bombers, Israeli security sources said.
Hizbullah is the main suspect in supplying the rare explosives, probably through tunnels linking the southern Gaza city of Rafah to nearby Egypt.
“This was meant to be a strategic, mega-terror strike. Now we have to review our own strategy,” a Jerusalem official said, referring to efforts to discover how the two Palestinians got through the Gaza security fence.
Israel Defense Forces officials believe the terrorists may have burrowed under the Gaza security fence.
“They found a weak point and they exploited it,” Cabinet minister Yosef Paritzky said of Sunday’s assailants.
“A port, by nature, is a very busy place,” he said. “There are many people coming and going. It is impossible to seal the entire country hermetically.”
Amid the investigation, a Jerusalem official said, “What we learn from this incident will have to be implemented everywhere in the territories – and fast.”
Not exactly news, but the likely objective of the attack hasn't been explicitly addressed.
I thought they came in by container?
Of course not everyone dies. Most of the surviviors have scarred lungs and can never breathe properly again--only wheeze painfully for the remainder of their lives.
Did I mention the disfigurement which comes from chemical burns to the face?
Oh, yes, one more thing. Blindness from chemical burns to the eyes.
No, not everyone dies.
If this had happened in the US a nuclear response is our avowed position.
The Arafat & Company.
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