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Sharon Vows "Harsh Responses" to Suicide Bombing
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon claimed Friday that his unity government will take harsh responses to the suicide bombing attack in Israel's northern coastal city of Netanya earlier in the day.
He asked Netanya officials to try to calm the situation at the site and vowed he will "restore security and calm" to Israeli residents, according to officials in the Prime Minister's Office.
Sharon was convening his inner-circle security cabinet, including senior defense officials, at the Defense Minister in Tel Aviv Friday afternoon to decide Israel's retaliation measures.
Israel usually bombed Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for such attacks.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh said the attack was part of Palestinians' escalation of violence with Israel, which has rocked the region for nearly eight months. Over 500 have been killed in the violence, and 20,000 others wounded, most of them Palestinians.
Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a leading hawk in Sharon's government, also blamed the incident as the Palestinian's "response to two peace initiatives" in the past weeks.
He was referring to a report drafted by the Mitchell committee, or the international fact-finding committee for determining the causes of the violence and a peace plan presented by Egypt and
Jordan.
At least five people were killed, 57 others wounded, some seriously, in the suicide blast at the entrance to the Hasharon shopping mall in Netanya, some 30 kilometers north of Tel Aviv, the most deadly bombing attack since the violence erupted late last
September.
Israel radio reported that one of the dead was apparently the suicide bomber. A Lebanese television reported that the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hamas reportedly said the suicide bomber, Mahmud Ahmed Maramashe, was a 20-year-old resident of the West Bank city of Tulkarm.
The attack took place as the suicide bomber was trying to enter the shopping mall crowded with local Jews who were preparing for the Shabbat day beginning from Friday's sunset.
The bomber, wearing a heavy coat over the explosive device that was strapped to his waist, was blocked at the entrance by alerted security guards and asked for checking. At that point he blasted himself off.
The police have sealed the entire area at the northern end of the resort city, two kilometers inland from the beach front, to traffic, searching for additional bombers or explosive devices.
On March 4, a suicide bomber killed himself and three other Israelis near the central bus station in Netanya, nor far away from Friday's bombing attack. Israel police data showed that in the past week, there were at least 10 bombing attempts in the coastal area north of Tel Aviv.
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