/ 1 January 2002

Fresh suicide blast in Israel

A Palestinian attacker blew himself up outside a nightclub in Tel Aviv early on Friday in the fourth suicide attack since Sunday, as the Middle East slid back toward its desperate cycle of violence.

Israeli troops meanwhile made a brief incursion into Gaza City, destroying three factories.

The latest attack came less than 24 hours after a suicide bomber sent to avenge the death of a Palestinian militant chief killed in Beirut hit Rishon Letsion, a Tel Aviv suburb rocked by a human bomb only two weeks ago.

Israel army radio said a security guard working at the Columbarian nightclub in Tel Aviv noticed a suspicious car moving towards the entrance of the club and opened fire on the driver, causing a huge explosion.

The Palestinian was killed and two bystanders were injured, one lightly to moderately and the other suffering from shock, the radio said.

Israel public radio said the guard had shouted at the clubbers standing in the street to lie on the ground, then had opened fire on the car.

It was not initially clear whether the Palestinian detonated a charge he was wearing or whether the car was loaded with explosives which went off when the guard opened fire.

Meanwhile Israeli troops staged an incursion into Gaza City early on Friday, destroying three factories before they pulled out, Palestinian security sources and witnesses told AFP.

Several Israeli tanks and jeeps moved more than two kilometres into Palestinian territory, targeting factories in the industrial zone of Zeitoun in the south of Gaza City, security sources said.

During the incursion troops laid explosive charges in a metal factory, a fibreglass factory and a timber production facility, completely destroying the three structures, local witnesses said.

No one was injured in the incident and the army pulled some out three hours later, security sources said.

Israeli military sources said that one building which had been used for manufacturing mortar shells had been hit but could not confirm anything about the other two.

As Israelis absorbed the shock of Thursday’s suicide attack, another bomb set fire to a tanker truck in the country’s main fuel depot in a populated area north of Tel Aviv, but the blaze was quickly put out by the plant’s emergency services. The Israeli army, which had been poised after the devastating May 7 bombing in Rishon Letsion to invade the Gaza Strip as it had done the West Bank the month before, moved quickly in the wake of Thursday’s attack.

Tanks rolled into Palestinian-controlled areas of Hebron and smaller West Bank towns around Jenin and arrested 19 Palestinians, Israeli and Palestinian security sources said.

The latest suicide bombing in Rishon Letsion left the bomber from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and two Israelis dead in a crowded area of cafes near the town’s main promenade. More than 30 people were injured.

The radical group, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, said the attack was payback for the death of Jihad Jibril, a military chief of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, killed by a car bomb in Beirut on Monday.

But Israeli foreign ministry representative Emmanuel Nachshon, who dismissed charges that Israel killed Jibril, ultimately blamed the Palestinian Authority of Yasser Arafat for ”doing nothing to stop the attacks.”

The Palestinian leadership quickly issued a statement condemning what it called a ”terrorist” act in Rishon Letsion that it warned could open the door to blistering Israeli retaliation.

More than 4 000 Palestinians were arrested in Israel’s West Bank offensive last month, with around 1 100 still detained, but the sudden calm that followed the campaign has gradually been eroded by a swelling number of attacks as hardliners start to regroup.

The ability of extremists to strike at the heart of Israel was underscored when a bomb in a tanker truck triggered a fire at the Gelilot fuel depot, the largest in the country.

Israeli public radio said the bomb had been placed in the cab of the vehicle and exploded by means of a mobile phone. It set the truck on fire but firemen were quick to react and bring the blaze under control.

A senior Israeli intelligence chief also warned that Jewish communities throughout the world were threatened by extremist Islamic groups linked to ”global terrorism.”

On the diplomatic front, US President George Bush reiterated in Berlin that peace in the Middle East hinged on Israel and a new Palestinian state living peacefully side by side.

Meanwhile, Israeli public radio reported that CIA Director George Tenet and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns were to arrive in Israel next week to debate promised reforms in the Palestinian Authority.

Although it was not clear from the report exactly when the two were expected to arrive, the radio said Tenet would be discussing reform of the Palestinian security services, and would be looking to encourage a resumption of security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians.

Burns’ trip would be focused on the reforms within the Palestinian Authority itself, the radio said. But US consulate representative Pat Kabra denied the report, saying it was ”very unlikely” they would be coming next week. – Sapa-AFP