Last week at his meeting with George Bush, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas steering clear of the words "terrorism" and "terrorists", demanded the release of those he called "prisoners of freedom," now being held in Israeli jails. (Read more at Brett Stephen's editorial.)
Today, in the coastal town of Hadera a suicide bomber exploded in the open market, killing 5 people and wounding some 30 others.
The suicide bomber, Hassan Abu Zeid, was one of Abbas' "prisoners of freedom" who was released about one month ago from Israeli prison.
Update
Islamic Jihad have claimed responsibility.
| It is a natural retaliation for the Israeli crimes committed against our people, namely the crime against Luay Sa'adi," Islamic Jihad spokesman Khader Habib told the AP. "The Islamic Jihad movement was committed to the truce, and is still committed to the truce, but this truce should be mutual. We cannot tolerate a one-sided truce. |
Media Backspin notes the army's doubt over the veracity of these retaliation claims.
| Military sources, however, were quick to point out that a bomb attack of this magnitude took longer than three days to plan. |
walked down allenby today to get some tickets stamped, took a sherut to shuk hacarmel, and was gladly wandering along to one of my favourite places in tel aviv, when I saw the 3 soldiers guarding the one entrance. I got quite a fright, and hightailed it out of there - very scary. In all likelihood it makes no sense to be scared, but I was. thank you terrorists!
Posted by: Katherine | October 28, 2005 at 02:09
Do you take busses? Most of my friends that have been there lateley avoided busses - but for someone living there do you just overcome that "bus" fear.
Im gonna be in Israel in December - last time i was there i took busses all the time. I think I still will.
Posted by: Steve | October 28, 2005 at 08:06
Yeah - I take a bus every morning to ulpan - there's just no way you can take a car into central Tel Aviv unless you have parking - plus driving here is a nightmare as I'm sure you know! Every sunday my bus is packed full full full, especially with soldiers returning to base - can you say perfect target? With the busses it's kinda that you can not be scared because you just have to consider your chances fairly low - but I think if I lived in Jerusalem I wouldn't take them - but I don't know. Markets are a different beast though - one that has been a target before, and is a likely target now - I ain't so comfy being in!
Posted by: Katherine | October 28, 2005 at 10:16