Hadchaka -Repression December 2002
To all those concerned,
Me and many Israelis have got so used to Repressing the News that I
Have not really thought about yesterdays Suicide Bombers...
This morning I was near there, a few streets away, and I did not feel
tension.
Sam
From Haaretz:
23 die in TA bus station double bombing

At least 23 people were killed and 100 others wounded in a double
suicide bombing at 6:33 P.M. yesterday in the old central bus station
in south Tel Aviv. It was the third time in less than a year that
terrorists have targeted this neighborhood where mostly foreign
workers and poor people live, but which is a major crossing point
through the city for people using public transport.
As of last night, eight people were still in critical condition in
hospitals.
The two suicide bombers - both from Nablus, said the Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade, which claimed responsibility for the attack - blew
themselves up within less than a minute of one another, at the corner
of G'dud Ha'ivri and Neve She'anan streets at the two ends of a
pedestrian promenade lined with small pubs and shops frequented by
local residents.
It was the first attack inside Israel in more than a month, and the
worst inside the Green Line since the Passover Seder suicide bombing
at the Park Hotel in Netanya, which killed 29 and prompted the army's
Operation Defensive Shield to reoccupy most of the West Bank.
Many of the dead and wounded were foreign workers, and the Interior
Ministry issued a statement saying nobody seeking medical aid would
become subject to expulsion or arrest. Interior Minister Eli Yishai
promised temporary visas for the wounded and their families who are
not legally in Israel.
A reporter for Lebanon's Al-Manar television station first reported
that Islamic Jihad had phoned him to take responsibility for the
attack, but a Damascus-based official in the Palestinian group said
there had been no official statement.
Later in the evening the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing
of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, took responsibility. In a
statement claiming that it was behind the bombings, the group
identified the two bombers as Nablus residents Burak Hilsa and Samar
A-Nuri. "The two martyrs managed to cross all the Zionist army
roadblocks and reached the heart of Tel Aviv. One blew his pure body
up at the old central bus station, and the other blew himself up in
another nearby street," the message said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened a security meeting at 11:30 P.M.
with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Foreign Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, Finance Minister Silvan Shalom and Public Security
Minister Uzi Landau, along with the heads of the security
establishment, to consider Israel's response.
Late last night, Channel Two was reporting IDF helicopters striking
targets in Gaza. However, with the IDF already occupying all the
Palestinian cities of the West Bank and much of the countryside, and
since Sharon has promised the U.S. that Israel "will not harm"
Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, no dramatic change in policy was
expected last night.
Security sources said that with the U.S. building up to an attack on
Iraq, the timing was "problematic" for expelling Arafat, whom the
government still blames for the terrorism. Military analysts said any
dramatic move would also require a reservist callup, something the
government is loathe to do so close to election day on January 28.
Arafat issued a statement condemning the attack and promising to
arrest those responsible.
The attack was the first suicide bombing in an Israeli city since
November, when a terrorist blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing
himself and 11 passengers. On July 17, 2002, two suicide bombers blew
themselves up at the entrance to the Neve Sha'anan Quarter, killing
three people and wounding 40 others. On January 25, 2002, 32 people
were wounded in a suicide blast on Neve Sha'anan Street.
Police were searching last night for a black Honda Civic that was
reported by eyewitnesses to have sped away from the scene of the
attack - but they conceded that reports of cars leaving the scene of
a terrorist attack for the direction of the West Bank are quite
common. The Honda was said to be carrying two Palestinians.
The response across the political spectrum was tinged with
electioneering. Public Security Deputy Minister Gideon Ezra of the
Likud said "the Arabs are exploiting the fact we are trying to make
their lives easier by lifting the curfews - which enables the
terrorists to infiltrate."
Meretz leader Yossi Sarid, MK, and Yossi Beilin, the new Meretz
candidate for the Knesset, were in Cairo in a meeting with Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher at the time of the blast. Maher cut
short the meeting to issue a vehement condemnation, while Sarid and
Beilin said "this damnable terror is what brought us to visit Cairo
to discuss with the Egyptian administration how to end this bloody
journey. We, like the Egyptians are determined to fight terror not
only with force but through political means. Only with both methods
can terror be defeated."
By Ha'aretz Staff