israelinsider: security: Suicide bombing in central Jerusalem; 20 injured

Suicide bombing in central Jerusalem; 20 injured
By israelinsider staff September 4, 2001


		09/04 Suicide bomber rocks central Jerusalem Jerusalem Post 09/04 Suicide bombing hits Jerusalem BBC 09/04 Four bombings in 7 hours shake Jerusalem Jerusalem Post 09/03 Series of blasts rocks Jerusalem CBC


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	Israel Ministry of Defense

	Israel Defense Forces

A suicide bomber blew himself up early this morning on Hanevi'im Street in central Jerusalem. 20 people were injured in the blast, one seriously, including three employees of nearby Bikur Holim Hospital and the security guard stationed at the hospital's entrance. The blast, which occurred not far from the site of last month's Sbarro restaurant bombing, followed the four bombings that rocked Jerusalem yesterday causing minor injuries.

The blast occurred shortly before 8 a.m. this morning. An initial investigation by the police indicates that the terrorist was walking up Hanevi'im Street, with a large explosive device contained in an oversized backpack. The terrorist was wearing a kippa (skull cap) and ultra-Orthodox clothing, but still raised the suspicions of a passerby, who alerted two nearby Border Policemen.

The Border Policeman approached the terrorist to question him. At that point he detonated the explosive device. The two men were injured with moderate to serious wounds, and quickly taken to the nearby hospital for treatment.

"It was clear to me that he was a suicide bomber," reported Guy Mugrabi, the moderately wounded policeman. "The moment we shouted to him to stop, he turned his back towards us and put his right hand in his bag. We raised our rifle barrels but were unable to stop him," Mugrabi told Army Radio.

"I was in the emergency room and heard the blast," Yael Aharon, a nurse at the hospital told ynet. "I went out to help, because I knew this was a bombing," she said. "I saw injured people on the ground and tried to give first aid."

"There is no doubt in my mind that the perseverance and bravery of the two Border Policemen prevented a much larger tragedy," said Jerusalem Police Commander Mickey Levy this morning. "The terrorist could have entered Bikur Holim Hospital and detonated the charges there, or in the crowded city center nearby," he said.

Four blasts rocked Jerusalem on Monday
This morning's bombing follows four blasts that rocked the capital yesterday. The first explosion occurred just after midnight when a small bomb went off in French Hill. Police had been called to investigate a suspicious object when the bomb exploded. There were no injuries in the blast.

Some four hours later a large pipe bomb packed with nails exploded under a truck in the city's Maalot Dafna neighborhood. Slight damage was caused to the truck and one woman was treated for shock after the blast.

Just before 8 a.m. another bomb exploded in French Hill, adjacent to the neighborhood's commercial center. At the same time a bomb exploded in a vehicle belonging to the Jerusalem Municipality in the southern neighborhood of Gilo, lightly wounding six people. Police said they believed the bomb was planted in the vehicle when it was parked in Pisgat Ze'ev, a northern neighborhood, overnight.

A group calling itself the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for all four bombings, in revenge for the death of PFLP chief Abu Ali Mustafa, who was killed last week in an Israeli missile attack on his office in Ramallah.

Police sources said they believed the explosives were originally intended to harm Israeli schoolchildren on their first day of school earlier in the week. Maariv reported on Friday that plans of the PFLP to launch terrorist attacks to coincide with the new school year led to the decision to strike at Mustafa.

"Jerusalem has always been a front, sometimes more so, sometimes less so," said Police Inspector General Shlomo Aharonishky said yesterday. "As in the rest of the country, it is impossible to hermetically seal the city," he added.

Jerusalem Police Commander Mickey Levy said that he had reduced patrols in the city's northern neighborhoods, in part due to a need to cope with a rally yesterday by Israeli Arabs outside the Prime Minister's office.