- Title: MIDDLE EAST: TWO SUICIDE BOMBINGS ROCK ISRAEL AND THE WEST BANK
- Date: 12th August 2003
- Summary: (W4) ROSH HA'AYIN, ISRAEL (AUGUST 12, 2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS SCENE OF SUICIDE BOMBING IN A SHOPPING MALL (2 SHOTS) MV: CROWD LOOKING ON SV: SECURITY WORKER FORCING OPEN DOOR OF PARKED CAR (W4) ROSH HA'AYIN, ISRAEL (AUGUST 12, 2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS INTERIORS OF BOMBED STORE (3 SHOTS) (W4) NEAR TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (AUGUST 12, 2003) (REUTERS) PAN: AMBULANCE ARRIVING AT HOSPITAL SV: INJURED PERSON BEING TAKEN INSIDE VARIOUS INTERIORS OF HOSPITAL SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN SAYING: "I was at the cash register with a customer. I heard a bang and I thought that it was the fluorescent light above me. I touched the keyboard because I thought that the computer had exploded. There was a woosh and then I fell back." (W4) ARIEL, WEST BANK (AUGUST 12 2003) (REUTERS) SV: RELIGIOUS RESCUE WORKERS AT SITE OF SECOND SUICIDE BOMBING AT A BUS STOP NEAR ARIEL SETTLEMENT SLV/PAN: BODY PARTS OF BOMBER AND VICTIMS COVERED BY WHITE BAGS (2 SHOTS) SV: HAND BAGS ON CONCRETE BLOCK SV: REMOTE CONTROLLED ARMY ROBOT/ WIDE OF SCENE (2 SHOTS) SV/CU: ARMY SPOKESMAN TALKING TO REPORTERS (2 SHOTS) SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED ARMY SPOKESMAN SAYING "We was expected to this thing, but we didn't know exactly when it would be happened and where it would be happened. But we expected an attack." (W4) GAZA CITY, GAZA (AUGUST 12, 2003) (REUTERS) WIDE OF ABDEL AZIZ AL-RANTISSI, HAMAS SPOKESMAN SEATED IN OFFICE; CLOSE OF HAMAS FLAG (2 SHOTS) SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABDEL AZIZ AL-RANTISSI, HAMAS SPOKESMAN, SAYING "Any decisions concerning a change in the Hudna (truce) needs to be discussed by the different factions. But all national and Islamic factions have declared that despite their commitment to the truce they have the right to respond to the terrorist activities of the Zionist enemy." (W4) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (AUGUST 12, 2003) (REUTERS) MV SAEB EREKAT, A SENIOR PALESTINIAN OFFICIAL CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) SAEB EREKAT, A SENIOR PALESTINIAN OFFICIAL, SAYING "The Palestinian leadership has always maintained its position in condemning attacks that target civilians whether Israelis or Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership utterly rejects the Israeli accusations and finger pointing to the Palestinian Authority's responsibilities." SV: CAMERA OPERATORS CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) SAEB EREKAT, A SENIOR PALESTINIAN OFFICIAL, SAYING "We call upon the American Administration to begin a process of de-escalation and de-confliction and to maintain hope through the implementation of the Road Map." (W4) ROSH HA'AYIN, ISRAEL (AUGUST 12 2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RELIGIOUS RESCUE WORKERS CLEANING UP SITE OF SUICIDE BOMBING (8 SHOTS) VARIOUS OF REMAINS OF SUICIDE BOMBER BEING WHEELED AWAY
- Embargoed: 27th August 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROSH HA'AYIN AND NEAR TEL AVIV, ISRAEL / GAZA CITY, GAZA / ARIEL AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Crime,General,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAB1OZ57BOIBM17F0PSRVA0V8UJ
- Story Text: Two suicide bombings rock Israel and West Bank.
Two Palestinian suicide bombers struck in Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday (August 12, 2003), killing two people and shattering six weeks of relative calm ushered in by a ceasefire designed to bolster a new peace plan.
The explosions threatened to derail the two-month-old, U.S.-engineered "road map" plan, already in trouble amid recriminations between Palestinians and Israelis over non-compliance with its terms.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast. But political fall-out came swiftly with Israel putting off the imminent release of 76 Palestinian prisoners.
The Palestinians' reformist leadership wants thousands freed to reduce the popularity of militants opposed to peace moves. The first explosion ripped through a grocery store in the central Israeli town of Rosh Ha'ayin. At least one person was killed as well as the suicide bomber. Six were hurt.
"I was at the cash register with a customer. I heard a bang and I thought that it was the fluorescent light above me. I touched the keyboard because I thought that the computer had exploded. There was a woosh and then I fell back," said one woman from her hospital bed.
Less than an hour later, a suicide bomber killed himself and one other person in a group hitchhiking by a petrol station outside the major Jewish settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. Several other people were wounded.
The militant Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility for the West Bank bombing.
The military wing of Hamas said on its Web site that a 21-year-old militant carried out the attack to avenge what it called Israel's "assassination" of two Hamas members last Friday (August 8) in the West Bank city of Nablus.
"Any decisions concerning a change in the Hudna (truce) needs to be discussed by the different factions.
But all national and Islamic factions have declared that despite their commitment to the truce they have the right to respond to the terrorist activities of the Zionist enemy," Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the earlier bombing.
The only previous such bombing since militant faction chiefs proclaimed a three-month truce on June 29 was on July 7 when a woman was killed and her home destroyed in Yabetz near Tel Aviv.
Rosh Ha'ayin is 10 km (six miles) east of Tel Aviv and near an open boundary with the West Bank, from which many suicide bombers have come in a 34-month-old uprising for statehood.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas aborted a tour of Gulf states to return home because of the bombings.
He denounced the attacks but also bemoaned continued Israeli army raids into Palestinian cities in search of wanted militants which he said provoked such bloodshed.
"The Palestinian leadership has always maintained its position in condemning attacks that target civilians whether Israelis or Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership utterly rejects the Israeli accusations and finger pointing to the Palestinian Authority's responsibilities," senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat told reporters.
"We call upon the American Administration to begin a process of de-escalation and de-confliction and to maintain hope through the implementation of the Road Map," Erekat added.
The blasts followed a vow of revenge from Islamist militant group Hamas after Israel killed two members and two other Palestinians in a raid in Nablus in the West Bank last week.
Some militant splinter cells, mainly offshoots of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, reject the truce and have continued attacks. But the overall level of violence with casualties had subsided dramatically of late.
Militant group leaders described the bombings as a "natural reaction" to what they called "continued Zionist attacks", citing the Nablus raid as an example but said they remained committed to the ceasefire.
Israel says it has no choice but to hunt down wanted militants, saying Palestinian authorities were balking at doing so as required by the road map which charts a way to Palestinian statehood in occupied West Bank and Gaza territory by 2005.
Israeli officials say militants have abused Israel's scaling back of military operations during the truce period to stockpile bombs and rockets for more attacks after it expires.
Palestinian officials say they would risk civil war if they tried to dissolve militant groups before Israel withdrew from occupied West Bank cities and lifted economically crippling blockades, two other steps stipulated by the road map. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
