Woman Bomber Kills Israeli, Self, Injures 100 in Jerusalem

An attacker police suspected was a Palestinian woman detonated explosives in Jerusalem's main shopping street on Sunday, killing herself and an elderly Israeli and wounding more than 100, Israeli police said.

The Jaffa Road attack was the third on an Israeli city center in under a week, raising the specter of new retaliation.

It was also likely to increase Israeli and US pressure on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to do more to rein in militants behind the mounting wave of bloodshed.

``This attack this morning is just one more instance that proves that there is no effective control of the terrorist attacks that are being launched against Israel,'' US Vice President Dick Cheney said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program.

Israeli police said the bomber and an 81-year-old Israeli man were killed, but the circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear. The bomb might have exploded prematurely. They said 111 people were wounded, two of them seriously.

Police said they believed the bomber was a Palestinian woman.

``We are not calling her a suicide bomber, just a bomber. She is not an innocent bystander. There is a host of possibilities regarding how the bomb went off,'' a police spokesman said.

If confirmed, it would be the first suicide bombing carried out by a woman in Israel. It was the first fatal bombing carried out by a woman in a 16-month Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

``We've had intelligence warnings on women suicide attackers, albeit not recently,'' Deputy Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra told Reuters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

CYCLE OF RETRIBUTION

The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack and called on Washington, which last week postponed a truce mission by envoy Anthony Zinni, to send him back without delay.

Two days ago a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and wounded 25 people in Tel Aviv. On Tuesday, a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli women on Jaffa Road, near the scene of Sunday's bombing. Police shot him dead.

After Friday's blast, President Bush told reporters: ``I am disappointed in Yasser Arafat. He must make a full effort to rout out terror in the Middle East.''

Asked about Israeli retaliation, Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said: ``The military will bring its recommendations for the approval of the political echelon.''

Israeli jets fired missiles on Friday at Palestinian security targets, wounding two Palestinians in retaliation for Friday's suicide bombing. An Israeli missile strike on Thursday followed the shooting attack that killed the two Israeli women.

TOUGH TALK

Gold said that, instead of heeding Bush's call to crack down on terrorism, Arafat had publicly expressed his desire to become a martyr for the Palestinian cause and called for jihad, or holy struggle, for an independent state.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority urged militants to stop their anti-Israeli attacks. After Sunday's bombing, it said: ``The Palestinian leadership strongly condemns the suicide attack against Israeli civilians in Jerusalem.''

Later on Sunday, the Palestinian Authority issued arrest warrants for three security officers named by Israel as suspects in an attempt to smuggle a shipload of weapons to Palestinian areas, the Wafa news agency said. One officer has been detained in the West Bank and the other two are abroad.

On the ``This Week'' program on the US ABC television network, Cheney harshly criticized Arafat for denying knowledge of the ship, which was seized by Israeli commandos in the Red Sea on Jan 3. ``We don't believe him,'' Cheney said.

The tough talk in Washington about Arafat drew praise from Israel and a call for US sanctions against the besieged Palestinian leader.

Israeli Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar said Sharon would ask Bush at a White House meeting on February 7 to impose sanctions such as putting Arafat's personal security force on the State Department list of terrorist groups.

Arafat has been confined by Israeli tanks to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah since a wave of anti-Israeli attacks in December.

``I'm afraid that these American statements will be understood by Sharon as a green light to escalate the aggression,'' Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.

At least 821 Palestinians and 248 Israelis have been killed in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation that began in September 2000 after peace negotiations deadlocked.

(China Daily January 28, 2002)