GAZA: Israeli planes hit rocket launch sites in Gaza hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber kills at least three Israelis

Record ID: 341389

  • Title: GAZA: Israeli planes hit rocket launch sites in Gaza hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber kills at least three Israelis
  • Date: 31st March 2006
  • Summary: ITEM ENDS WITHOUT BLACK AND GOES STRAIGHT INTO NEXT ITEM ON BAHRAIN CAPSIZE
  • Embargoed: 15th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4HYUACHEXPCZ1FC7G4AW63JVF
  • Story Text: Israeli planes hit rocket launch sites in Gaza early on Friday (March 31, 2006), hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least three Israelis near a West Bank settlement in the worst spike in violence recently.
    The flare-ups come just days after militant Islamist group Hamas took office and Israeli leader Ehud Olmert's Kadima party won elections with a platform of imposing a border in the occupied West Bank if peacemaking remains frozen.
    The suicide attack late on Thursday (March 30) was the first such bombing in two months. Rescue workers said the bomber was disguised as a religious Jew and was hitchhiking.
    He talked his way into a car near the entrance to the settlement, then blew himself up. Hamas described it as a "natural response to Israeli crimes".
    Israeli media said four Israelis had been killed in the attack.
    A police spokesman said three Israelis were killed as well the bomber. He added that a fifth body had been discovered near the site of vehicle.
    Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, claimed the bombing and said it was in response to Israeli attacks.
    Palestinian governments under Fatah's control had recently condemned suicide bombings inside Israel, though used more careful language when it came to attacks inside the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
    Israel said Thursday's attack near the settlement of Kedumim followed dozens of warnings of impending attacks.
    Artillery gunners also shelled open areas in the northern Gaza strip in response to recent rocket fire, which killed two Israelis earlier this week.
    Hamas, formally sworn to destroying Israel and behind nearly 60 suicide bombings during a Palestinian uprising, has largely followed a truce itself for more than a year.
    But Hamas's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal stressed earlier that Hamas remained committed to fighting Israel.
    Criticising Hamas for failing to soften its line since it won a Jan. 25 election, a "Quartet" of Middle East mediators warned the group that direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority would inevitably be affected.
    Olmert's centrist Kadima party won Tuesday's election on plans to set Israel's final borders within four years, with or without the agreement of its Palestinian neighbour, by removing isolated settlements in the occupied West Bank and expanding bigger ones. That would displace tens of thousands of settlers.
    Palestinians say such a move would annex land and deny them the viable state they seek in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
    Israel withdrew settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip last year in a move that was popular among many Israelis.
    Final election results released late on Thursday showed Kadima had won 29 seats in the 120-member parliament, up one from earlier counts. To form a government, Kadima will have to align with other parties.
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