Suicide bomber kills five at Netanya mall
May 20, 2001

Five Israelis were killed Friday morning when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a Netanya shopping mall. Over 100 were wounded in the attack, which killed Tersa Polonski, 66, from Moshav Kfar Haim, Miriam Waxman, 51, from Hadera, and David Yarkoni, 53, from Netanya. Officials announced today that Vladislav Sirokin, 34 of Netanya and 19-year-old Yulia Tutukova were also killed in the blast.

The bombing occurred shortly before noon, at a time when the Sharon Mall in the center of Netanya was crowded with weekend shoppers. A suspicious young man approached the mall's entrance, drawing attention to himself by wearing an over-sized blue sports coat.

Security guard Lior Kamissa, alerted by colleagues that the suspect was approaching, said, "I looked at him and our gaze met. He wanted to come in and saw me and exploded himself."

Netanya police received calls from alert citizens who had seen the suspicious character outside the shopping mall. Despite the close proximity of a police station, it took six minutes for a patrol car to arrive, by which time the attack had already taken place.

Explosive experts believe that the bomb weighed about 25 kilograms, and unlike the bombs used in previous attacks, contained more explosive material and no shards of metal and nails.

The suicide bomber was identified as Hamas member Mahmoud Ahmed Marmash, 20, a carpenter from Tulkarm. His identity was first announced by the Hizbullah television station in Lebanon, raising concern of a growing connection between the Hizbullah and the Hamas movement in the Palestinian territories.

Ahmed Jaber, a 22-year-old taxi driver from Taiba, was arrested by police on suspicion of driving Marmash from Tulkarm to Netanya on Friday morning. Jaber, who charged a 100-shekel fare, insisted that he did not know Marmash was on a suicide mission.

The Jerusalem Post reported today that Palestinian extremists have recruited some 250 volunteer suicide bombers "to initiate a campaign of terror in revenge for the killing of Palestinians." Unnamed sources mentioned in the Jerusalem Post article did not want to say which Palestinian factions attended a meeting held near Jerusalem yesterday along with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions.