Suicide bomber kills 4 Israelis

JERUSALEM -- A young Palestinian mother of two methodically made her way to the front of a line of workers at the main crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip yesterday, feigned a medical problem, and then detonated a bomb that was strapped to her body, killing herself and four Israelis, and wounding seven other people, Israeli authorities said.

At a time when Israel and the Palestinians are deadlocked on how -- or even whether -- to proceed with a US-backed peace plan, the suicide bombing appeared to harden sentiments on both sides against any resumption of contacts.

Hamas, together with another Palestinian militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack at the heavily fortified Erez crossing. It was believed to be the first time that the deeply conservative Islamist group has dispatched a woman to carry out a suicide bombing.

The assailant was identified as 22-year-old Rheim Riyashi, the mother of a small son and daughter. In a videotape distributed to news organizations, the dark-eyed, smiling young woman, clad in combat fatigues and a green Hamas headband, cradled an assault rifle as one might a child. It was, she said in clear, clipped tones, her most heartfelt wish to "knock on heaven's doors with the skulls of Zionists."

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed joint responsibility with Hamas for the bombing. Although unusual, it is not unprecedented for major Palestinian militant factions to work together to carry out such an attack.

The bombing took place at about 9:45 a.m. in a terminal where Palestinian laborers from the Gaza Strip were undergoing Israeli security checks before being allowed to proceed to their jobs in an adjacent industrial zone.

The main rush of workers had passed through several hours earlier, but the bare, metal-roofed terminal was still crowded, witnesses said. In recent weeks, as many as 4,000 Palestinian workers a day had been passing through.

Israeli military authorities swiftly sealed off the crossing, and the army said it was expected to remain closed for some time. Both Israeli and US officials expressed dismay that militant groups would select a target that put livelihoods as well as lives at risk.

"This is a terminal that we opened up to allow ordinary Palestinians to bring bread to their tables, and what do the militant groups do? They bring in a suicide bomber," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "This is a strategy to bring chaos, to make normal life for the Palestinians impossible."

The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, called for a mutual cease-fire, but did not immediately condemn the bombing. As a rule, senior Palestinian officials are reluctant to characterize attacks aimed mainly at Israeli military personnel as terrorism, because many Palestinians consider them to be legitimate acts of war.

Qurei told reporters in the West Bank that ongoing Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territories had inflamed the situation.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene after the bombing. Rain-soaked wind whipped into the terminal through shattered windows and black smoke billowed outward as injured soldiers and wounded Palestinian laborers cried for help.

Four of those hurt were Palestinian workers, according to Israeli and Palestinian medical officials. The dead Israelis included three soldiers and a civilian security inspector, military sources said.

This was the first suicide attack of the year. The last one was a Dec. 25 bombing near Tel Aviv that left four Israelis dead.

In the past, Hamas leaders have said women's roles should be to raise children and educate them to fight against Israel. But after yesterday's attack, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Hamas's spiritual leader, told reporters in Gaza City that suicide bombers need not be only men.

"Jihad is the obligation of all Muslims, both men and women," said Yassin. "Resistance will escalate against the Zionist enemy until they leave our land."

One Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the woman was a Hamas loyalist, but suggested she might have acted at least in part on her own rather than undergoing the usual selection process. Suicide attackers are almost always carefully evaluated members of Hamas's military wing.

Hamas spurned calls by Qurei late last year for a truce, but it had kept a low profile in recent months. Some in Israel's security establishment said prior to yesterday's bombing that they believed the group was observing a self-imposed hiatus, perhaps in order to regroup and rebuild. During the summer and early autumn, the Israeli military made a concerted attempt to wipe out the Hamas leadership, but its attacks tapered off over the past several months.

At Erez, witnesses said the young woman feigned a limp as she approached an Israeli metal detector, and told its operator that a metal plate in her leg left by surgery would likely raise an alarm.

A female soldier was sent for to search the woman. But before the soldier could reach the area, the assailant triggered her bomb, the army said.

"She took a few steps, and then set off a very, very large explosive device," said Major Sharon Feingold, a military spokeswoman.

In the videotape she left, Riyashi, who came from a middle-class merchant family, spoke of her devotion to her two children, ages 3 and 18 months. "Only God knows how much I loved them," she said unwaveringly.

The other group claiming a role in the Erez bombing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, had claimed responsibility less than 24 hours earlier for the shooting of a group of Jewish settlers on a stretch of West Bank highway that left one Israeli man dead and three wounded. Also yesterday, a 22-year-old British man died in a London hospital after spending nearly nine months in a coma. Tom Hurndall, a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was shot in the head in April while trying to help children out of the path of Israeli fire in the southern Gaza Strip, fellow activists said.

On Monday, an Israeli military prosecutor filed a six-count indictment against the unidentified soldier who shot him. Following Hurndall's death, Israeli officials said the charges could be upgraded to manslaughter.