VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN GUNMEN KILL SIX ISRAELIS AT POLLING STATION IN BEIT SHEAN/ WOUNDED RETURN FROM KENYA AFTER SUICIDE ATTACK/ LATEST.

Record ID: 645633

  • Title: VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN GUNMEN KILL SIX ISRAELIS AT POLLING STATION IN BEIT SHEAN/ WOUNDED RETURN FROM KENYA AFTER SUICIDE ATTACK/ LATEST.
  • Date: 30th November 2002
  • Summary: (W3) BEIT SHEAN, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 28, 2002) (REUTERS) GV/CU: MOURNERS SEATED IN RING ON GROUND AROUND CANDLES AT SITE OF ATTACK, CU FACES (3 SHOTS) GV/CU: ISRAELI PROTESTERS SHOUTING OUTDIE POLLING STATION, POLICE STANDING BY (2 SHOTS) GV/CU/GV/PAN: INTERIOR OF POLLING STATION AFTER ATTACK (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AFULA, BEIT SHEAN AND LOD AIRBASE NEAR TEL AVIV, ISRAEL/ JENIN, WEST BANK/ JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: West bank West bank Jerusalem Jerusalem Israel Germany
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1VGZILS75PAM4OMI02R46X2AC
  • Story Text: Israelis wounded and shaken by a suicide bomb attack on
    a resort hotel in Kenya have arrived back home to find
    violence had hit Israel itself as well. In the latest
    bloodshed two Palestinian gunmen killed six Israelis in an
    attack on a Likud polling booth in northern Israel.



    Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed Israel would hunt
    down those responsible for crashing a bomb-laden vehicle into
    the Paradise Hotel in the coastal resort of Mombasa on
    Thursday (November 28), killing three Israelis and nine
    Kenyans and wounding about 75 people.

    His pledge looked certain to appeal to relatives and
    friends of the victims of the latest upsurge of violence in
    Israel itself.

    Two Palestinian gunmen killed six Israelis in an attack on
    a Likud polling booth in Beit Shean in northern Israel on
    Thursday (November 25).

    The two gunmen were shot dead by the Israeli troops who
    later demolished their family homes in the West Bank city of
    Jenin.

    Scores of the town's residents gathered at the site of the
    shooting to pray, light candles and voice their anger.

    Anti-Palestinian slogans and calls for retribution echoed
    through the streets of the town as they marched past the site
    of the killings. Hundreds gathered for the funeral ceremony of
    four of the victims the next day.

    Across the Green Line dividing Israel proper from the
    Palestinian Territories, another crowd gathered to hail as
    heroes the Beit Shean assassins.

    "We're the young men of al-Aqsa Brigades," chanted scores
    of youngsters, many of them children, in reference to the
    Palestinian militant unit whose membership the Beit Shean
    attackers claimed.

    The rising tide of bloodshed has stoked fears that
    violence could hit yet another peak.

    "What's clear is that we are seeing a rising wave of
    international terrorism. Anyone who thought that terrorism is
    subsiding has been proven wrong," said Dore Gold, senior
    advisor to Prime Minister Sharon speaking about the attack in
    Kenya.

    The Mombasa hotel attack came almost simultaneously with
    an attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter jet leaving from
    Mombasa with tourists from the same resort.

    Kenyan police said on Friday that 12 people were being
    held for questioning in connection with the attacks. The
    officials, who declined to disclose the nationalities of those
    held, are working with Israeli and U.S. security experts.

    A previously unheard-of group calling itself the Army of
    Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack on the hotel
    and the failed missile attack on the Israeli airliner.

    But a Palestinian cabinet member on Friday (November 29)
    denied Palestinian involvement.

    "I have absolutely every assurance that this is not a
    Palestinian organisation and somebody must really look
    (investigate) and I'm sure the Kenyan authorities and other
    uthorities are looking into that matter. But this is not a
    Palestinian operation," said Nabil Shatah, Palestinian
    Minister for Planning and International Cooperation.

    Meanwhile in Israel, an air force Boeing 707 landed in
    pouring rain at Lod Air Force Base, near Tel Aviv, with about
    70 Israeli tourists, including the bodies of three who were
    killed in the Mombasa bombing -- two brothers aged 13 and 15
    and a 61-year-old man.

    Four wounded were put into ambulances bound for a
    Jerusalem hospital. Fifteen Israelis were hurt and the more
    seriously injured were due to arrive later on another air
    force jet.

    Most of the first arrivals were outwardly unscathed but
    many cried in relief at being home as they disembarked, draped
    in blankets and clutching each other before falling into the
    arms of loved ones awaiting them.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register