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Blast Rocks Israeli Shopping Mall, Three Killed
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The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack, which left two Israelis killed and around 40 others injured
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NETANYA,
July 12, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least two
Israelis were killed and 40 others wounded in a self-bomb attack in a
shopping mall in the coastal city of Netanya on Tuesday, July 12.
"We
heard an explosion, people began to scream and ran to the other exit
of the mall," Laura, a shop assistant at the mall was quoted by
Reuters as telling Israeli radio.
Israeli
police said the blast occurred at the entrance of the Kenyon Hasharon
mall at around 6:30 pm (1530 GMT), according to Agence France Presse
(AFP).
A
report on army radio said a Palestinian self-bomber had set off the
explosion as he was stopped at the entrance to the mall.
The
Tuesday's attack was claimed by the Palestinian resistance group the
Islamic Jihad.
The
attack was the first in Israel since a bombing outside a Tel Aviv
nightclub on February 25, carried out by members of the Islamic Jihad.
Violence
has dropped sharply since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reached a ceasefire during their
summit talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh last
February.
Palestinian
resistance factions, which have been observing a de facto ceasefire
since then, agreed last May in Cairo to extend the truce until the end
of the year.
Palestinian
officials have accused Israel of deliberately violating the ceasefire
with the resistance groups by attacking civilians and arresting large
numbers of activists.
On
June 7, three Palestinians had been killed by Israeli occupation
forces during separate military offensives in the occupied West Bank
and Gaza Strip.
Condemnation
The
Palestinian Authority condemned the blast, saying the perpetrators
were trying to wreck efforts to ensure that the Gaza Strip pullout
takes place peacefully.
The
chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat swiftly said the attack would
upset efforts to ensure that next month's Israeli pullout from the
occupied Gaza Strip would lead to a return to the troubled roadmap
peace plan which targets the creation of a Palestinian state.
"We
condemn this attack and whoever is behind it," Erakat told AFP.
"Its
aim is to destroy the efforts which are being made to make the Gaza
Strip withdrawal form part of the roadmap and take place in a peaceful
and organised manner."
Israel,
however, accused the Palestinian Authority Tuesday of "doing
nothing to stop terrorism".
"This
attack illustrates once again the impotence of the Palestinian
Authority which is doing nothing to stop terrorism," a source
close to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told AFP.
The
source said that further transfers of security control from the
Israeli army to the Palestinian Authority in parts of the West Bank
would not take place "in these conditions".
Israel
had been expected to hand over security control in the West Bank town
of Bethlehem in the next few days.
The
latest deaths raise the overall toll since the September 2000 start of
the Palestinian intifada to 4,779, including 3,713 Palestinians and
994 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
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