Posted on 09/09/2001 10:16:33 PM PDT by kattracks
Day of killings sparked by first Israeli Arab suicide bomberA middle-aged man from Galilee carried out the first suicide attack by an Arab citizen of the Jewish state yesterday, confronting Israel with the prospect of waging war against the enemy within on a day of bombings, drive-by shootings and helicopter gunship strikes.
Seven people were killed in three separate attacks within the space of five hours, a rapid-fire sequence of events even by the standards of the year-old Palestinian uprising.
In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the platform of an open- air railway station in the northern coastal town of Nahariya, just as a train was pulling in from Tel Aviv. Three Israelis were killed and several dozen wounded.
"I was standing nearby and I heard a great explosion. It took me a minute to come to my senses and then I saw glass everywhere and I saw people running like crazy," a witness told Israeli television. "People were crying and hysterical."
Israeli radio and television said that the bomber was Mohammed Shaqir Habishi, 55, a father of six from the Galilee village of Kafr Abu Snein. The attack could signal the opening of a dangerous new front, which would pit Israel against an internal enemy: the 1m Arab citizens of the Jewish state. It also renders ineffective the Israeli army's proposals to protect Jewish civilians by declaring a swath of the West Bank a no-go area for Palestinians.
Thirteen Israeli Arabs were shot dead by riot police in the protests that convulsed the Galilee at the start of the uprising. Since then, Israeli Arabs have been largely removed from the uprising of their ethnic kin in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
However, Israeli officials have been warning for weeks that militant Palestinian groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are recruiting inside the Arab towns of the north, feeding off resentments about discrimination and neglect by successive Jewish governments.
Intelligence officials said that they had been hunting Habishi - described as a supporter of Hamas - for 10 days.
The day's catalogue of bloodshed began when a jeep overtook a van ferrying Israeli teachers to a school at a Jewish settlement in the Jordan valley on the eastern perimeters of the West Bank, spraying it with automatic rifle fire. The driver and a woman teacher were shot dead, and three others were wounded.
Two hours later, Habishi struck at the northern reaches of Israel, spewing nails and metal debris into a crowd of commuters.
Barely had Israeli helicopter gunships retaliated for that attack - with seven missiles launched on two offices of Yasser Arafat's Fatah organisation in Ramallah, and another attack on Jericho - when news came in of a second bombing inside the borders of the Jewish state.
Witnesses said a red Peugeot exploded beside a traffic light at the Beit Lid junction near the coastal city of Netanya, in cinerating the driver and four vehicles, including a bus; 11 people were hurt. Police said the bomber was heading for a bus stop used by Israeli soldiers when his deadly cargo exploded prematurely.
The cluster of attacks at the start of Israel's working week deepened a sense of siege as the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, convened his cabinet to discuss the military's proposals for no-go areas in the West Bank and to decide on further reprisals.
The violence also appeared to rule out the latest efforts for ceasefire talks between the foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and Mr Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Mr Peres said at the weekend that he hoped to hold three meetings with Mr Arafat.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion at Beit Lid, but the military wing of Hamas claimed the Nahariya bombing - before it emerged that the bomber was an Israeli Arab - and the rival Islamic Jihad said it had carried out the road ambush in the Jordan valley. However, a spokesman said that Mr Arafat was ultimately responsible for all violent acts committed by Palestinians. He also said he could see no point to the meetings.
"What is the use of such talks when Arafat speaks about peace and then turns around to instigate terrorist activities. That is what happened today," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Mr Sharon. "What does this man want? Does he want peace, or does he want to continue to head a coalition of terror groups and to reign over a kingdom of terror?"
From the West Bank city of Ramallah, a statement from Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority disowned all three attacks, saying it "condemns all operations that target Israeli and Palestinian civilians".
Protests???
They are rioters with murderous intent, not "protesters." The Israelis would not kill them without good cause.
| Suspected suicide bomber Muhammad Saker Habashi is seen in a political poster in the Israeli Arab town of Abu Snan in northern Israel Sunday, Sept. 9, 2001. If Saker Habashi, an Arab Israeli blew himself up in Israel's north on Sunday, as Israel officials suspect, it would be the first time an Arab with Israeli citizenship turned himself into a human bomb. (AP Photo/Uriel Sinai) |
Which should make you pretty happy.
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