A Palestinian suicide bomber set off an explosion Wednesday at the main crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing at least four soldiers, Israeli officials and radio said. At least eight other people were wounded.
Israeli media reported the bombing was carried out by a female suicide bomber. Palestinian witnesses said a woman waiting to pass through to the Israeli side blew herself up.
The crossing is the main entry point into Israel for thousands of Palestinian workers. At the time of the blast, there were few Palestinian workers in the area, Israeli officials said.
Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade jointly claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported. The bomber was identified as Rim Saleh a Riyashi, 22, a Hamas activist from Gaza and mother of two children.
In a farewell video, she smiled and said she had dreamed since she was 13 of "becoming a martyr." She added it was her aim to turn her body into "deadly shrapnel." A Riyashi concluded by saying: "God gave me two children and I loved them so much. Only God knew how much I loved them."
Hamas, vowing to launch more attacks, said it dispatched a woman suicide bomber for the first time, in order to counter Israeli security precautions.
"For the first time (Hamas) used a female fighter and not a male fighter and that was a new development in resistance against the enemy," Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters. "Resistance will esclate against this enemy (Israel) until they leave our land and homeland."
A spokesman for Hamas said the movement carried out the bombing in retaliation for “continued Israeli atrocities against our civilians.”
“This martyrdom operation comes in response to the continued killing of our civilians, especially children, by Israeli occupation forces. As you see, they kill women and children, but we target heavily armed occupation soldiers.”
“Who are the real terrorists those who target women and children in Nablus, or those who attack heavily armed forces?” said a Hamas spokesman. “Israelis must understand that they can’t keep killing our civilians with impunity. Their blood is not more precious than our blood,” said Abu Firas, a Hamas official in Gaza. “This is a two-way street. We are not children of a lesser God.”
On his part, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei reacted to the bombing by saying that continued Israeli attacks and restrictions on the Palestinians are leading "to more escalation on both sides."
David Baker, an official in the Israeli Prime Minister's office, said the bombing proved that "the Palestinian terrorists not only have blatant disregard for Israeli lives but an equally blatant disregard for their own economic interests." (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
