Teen's bomb kills three Israelis

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ
The Associated Press

URIEL SINAI / GETTY IMAGES An Israeli woman is led away from the scene of yesterday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv's Carmel Market. The blast occurred shortly before noon, ripping apart a dairy store, damaging a vegetable stall and sending screaming shoppers running.

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TEL AVIV, Israel — A 16-year-old Palestinian laden with explosives blew himself up yesterday in a crowded outdoor market in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and wounding 32. The bomber's mother called the group that dispatched him "immoral."

The attack tested Israel's promise to show restraint during the absence of the ailing Yasser Arafat. Palestinian leaders — including Arafat — immediately condemned the attack, the first since a Sept. 22 bombing in Jerusalem.

From a military hospital near Paris, the 75-year-old Arafat "appealed to all Palestinian factions to commit to avoid harming all Israeli civilians and he appealed to (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon to take similar initiatives to avoid harming Palestinian civilians," Arafat's spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.

The blast occurred shortly before noon when the suicide attacker detonated an 11-pound bomb in the Carmel market, ripping apart a dairy store, damaging a vegetable stall and sending screaming shoppers running.

"The explosion was huge, there was fire and smoke ... it knocked me over," said David Hayu, who owns a nearby butcher shop. "No one knew what to do. People were looking for their sons, their daughters, their husbands and wives."

The attack was the 117th suicide bombing since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000 and was the first since Arafat left for France, where he has been treated since Friday for an unknown ailment. In all, 494 Israelis have been killed in such attacks.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a PLO faction, claimed responsibility, identifying the assailant as Eli Amer Alfar, from the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Alfar was among the youngest Palestinian suicide bombers — only one other was as young as 16 — and his parents lashed out at the militants who recruited him.

"It's immoral to send someone so young," said Samir Abdullah, 45, Alfar's mother. "They should have sent an adult who understands the meaning of his deeds."
 
Abdel Rahim, 53, Alfar's father, said his son woke him up yesterday and asked for two shekels — 50 cents.

"Two shekels, that's what boys ask for — it's not money for men," he said. "He kissed me on the cheek and hand and left, and I went back to sleep."

The other 16-year-old blew himself up at an army checkpoint Nov. 3, 2003, wounding a soldier.

Frustrated by Israeli security measures that have greatly reduced their effectiveness, militant groups have turned to using woman and teenagers to transport explosives and carry out attacks, hoping they would raise less suspicion at the dozens of Israeli checkpoints designed to capture bombers and other militants.

The timing of the bombing — while Arafat awaits diagnosis in Paris — fueled speculation.

"The timing of the operation sends a message to the Israeli people that the sickness of Arafat will not mean the end of the intifada and the resistance," said Palestinian analyst Hani Masri.

It conveys to Palestinians, in Masri's view, "to continue the resistance as a source of unity rather than become involved in internal struggle" because of Arafat's illness and possible death.

Other analysts, however, argued that there was no connection with Arafat's illness or whereabouts.

"The likelihood of a connection is very, very low," said Shalom Harari, of the International Policy Institution for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. "The Palestinians are trying to carry out such attacks all the time, but often they don't succeed."

Material on analysts' opinions provided by The Christian Science Monitor.