A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up during a stroll through a crowded pedestrian mall on Wednesday night, killing two Israelis, and intensifying fears that the relative lull in the attacks was over. The explosion was the third suicide bombing inside the borders of the Jewish state since Sunday.
A fax sent to a Western news agency claimed the attack for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group with links to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. If confirmed, the claim puts the Palestinian leader in an extremely difficult position with the United States and Israel. Arafat has been under unrelenting pressure to rein in the suicide bombers and recently condemned such attacks as ”terrorism”.
The bombing occurred only hours after Israel assassinated the Al Aqsa commander in the West Bank and the conjunction of events appeared to indicate yet another vicious upswing in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
In Rishon Letzion, witnesses told Israeli television they believed the bomber arrived in a car at around 9.10pm and was heading for a row of cafÃ