Bomb and air strikes cause new Middle East carnage

9.00am

JERUSALEM - A suicide bombing followed by retaliatory Israeli air strikes killed 16 people and injured 200 in one of the bloodiest days since a Palestinian uprising erupted nearly eight months ago.

In its biggest escalation since the latest cycle of violence began, Israel sent its warplanes on missile attacks in Palestinian-ruled areas for the first time.

The Israeli strikes, which killed at least nine people and wounded 90 at Palestinian security headquarters in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, came as reprisals for a suicide bombing that brought carnage to an Israeli shopping mall just hours earlier.

The bomber, a 21-year-old member of the militant Islamic group Hamas, killed six people and himself and wounded 110 in the seaside city of Netanya, just north of Tel Aviv, when he detonated explosives attached to a belt around his waist.

In the aftermath of the blast, mangled body parts littered the area along with shattered glass and twisted metal. Bloodied survivors screamed for help and witnesses wept.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing at a rally in Gaza and said it was in response to the killing of five Palestinian paramilitary policemen on Tuesday in the West Bank. An attack Israel has since called a mistake.

The bomber was identified as 21-year-old Mahmoud Ahmed Marmash, a resident of West Bank town of Tulkarm. His mother said he had been a devout Muslim who gave her a bag of sweets before setting off on his suicide mission.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon immediately summoned senior cabinet ministers to an emergency meeting.

Just hours later, Israeli warplanes launched a series of raids against what the army called "terrorist targets".

At least eight Palestinians were killed and 54 wounded in an attack on a security outpost in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian rescue workers said. All of the dead were policemen.

In a simultaneous strike, missiles slammed into a building housing members of President Yasser Arafat's Force 17 security apparatus in the West Bank city of Ramallah, witnesses said.

The body of at least one victim was pulled from the rubble, and 14 people were injured, the witnesses said. More than 20 more were hurt in attacks on Gaza and Tulkarm, the suicide bomber's home town.

"We warn against this serious escalation against our people and we urge the international community and especially the United States to immediately intervene to halt Israeli aggression," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, spokesman for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Raanan Gissin, Sharon's spokesman, said Israel's response "matched the severity" of the Netanya bombing.

"It's part of Israel's ongoing fight against those who direct terror," he said. "The fingerprints of the Palestinian Authority are all over it."

Israel's use of its F-16 fighter planes marks a major ratcheting-up of its military campaign against the uprising.

The Middle East's most powerful army has already been criticized internationally for using excessive force in an effort to crush what has been called the second Intifada.

It has resorted to live fire against stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators, used even more advanced weaponry against lightly armed gunmen and made regular incursions into Palestinian-controlled territory.

But Israeli officials says the tactics are needed to protect its solders and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli driving near a Jewish settlement close to the West Bank city of Ramallah overnight, the Israeli army said. A woman was seriously wounded.

Troops wounded five Palestinian youths throwing stones in the Gaza Strip in protests that flared after Muslim prayers, Palestinian hospital officials said.

President Bush condemned the "new level of intensity" in Middle East violence and urged leaders to speak out clearly against violence.

UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen called urgently for political dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, saying "the situation is on the verge of escalating to uncontrollable levels."

The explosion in Netanya tore down the front facade of the modern indoor mall, creating panic among shoppers who had packed stores ahead of the Jewish Sabbath.

An abandoned pram stood upright among the rubble. The baby survived but was in serious condition. Israeli onlookers gathered nearby, chanting: "Death to Arabs".

Members of Jewish burial societies, who are called to the scene of bomb attacks to meet the strictures of Orthodox law, turned to the grim task of recovering body parts.

"I got here two minutes after the attack and saw the guts and intestines and internal organs of people scattered all over," said Yossi Rosen, one of the burial officials.

The death toll in the blast was the highest in any bomb attack since the Palestinians began their revolt. But officials said it could have been even higher had a security guard not become suspicious and barred the bomber from entering the mall.

Netanya has been targeted in recent months by Islamic militants who have vowed to carry out bombings in Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian uprising.

The overall death toll since the Palestinians began their uprising against Israeli occupation last September includes at least 435 Palestinians, 87 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs.

- REUTERS

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