Four killed, 20 hurt in Geha bombing

Four people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide bombing at the Geha Junction between Petah Tikva and Bnei Brak yesterday.

The names of the dead had not been released for publication as of press time last night. Of the injured, one was in serious condition and four were in moderate condition. The others were lightly injured, with many members of this group suffering only from shock. The injured were evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and Sharon Medical Center in Petah Tikva.

The attack was the first successful suicide bombing since the one at Maxim's restaurant in Haifa on October 4, which killed 21 people. There have been 22 other attempted suicide bombings in the interim, according to the IDF Spokesman, but all were foiled by the security services.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge the Israel Defense Forces' killing of Fadi Hanani, a senior member of that organization, in a gun fight in Nablus about 10 days ago. The organization identified the bomber as Said Hanani, 21, of nearby Beit Furik, a relative of Fadi's and another member of the PFLP's Nablus cell.

Following the bombing, Israel imposed a full closure on the territories. In addition, IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon convened senior army officials for a situation assessment, and is expected to meet today with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz for further discussions.

However, since Israel is apparently not interested in taking harsh measures against the Palestinians just now, its response is likely to be confined to the closure and a stepped-up hunt for wanted terrorists - a hunt that would have taken place in any case, as the Shin Bet security service currently has 52 warnings of planned terrorist attacks.

In contrast, Israeli officials are expected to play up the fact that the PFLP's leadership is headquartered in Damascus, as a way of increasing pressure on Syria to rein in the terrorist organizations that it harbors. The defense establishment believes that the PFLP's Damascus leadership is involved in attacks such as yesterday's, though to a lesser degree than officials in the territories.

Most of the PFLP cells' orders, defense officials say, still come from a group of PFLP leaders who have been in a Palestinian jail in Jericho, under British and American supervision, for more than a year. The Palestinian Authority jailed these men due to Israeli and American pressure following the PFLP's assassination of minister Rehavam Ze'evi in October 2001, but they have been given virtually unrestricted telephone access, issue frequent press statements and receive regular visits from other PFLP members.

The PFLP has also been known to receive money from organizations in Lebanon, and it frequently cooperates with local Fatah cells.

Beit Furik, Said's hometown, is a known PFLP stronghold, and the Hanani clan, which is the largest in Beit Furik, is known to have several other members involved in terrorist activity, including two who committed an attack on the settlement of Elon Moreh in April.

The suicide bombing took place during the busy evening rush hour at a bus stop at the Geha Junction, where Palestinian workers routinely wait for people to pick them up for potential jobs, police said. The bomber, carrying a medium-sized bomb, approached the bus stop at about 6:30 P.M. and blew himself up, killing two people immediately and mortally wounding a third, who died en route to the hospital. A fourth person, who was seriously injured, died in the hospital a few hours later.

The explosion reduced the bus stop to a skeletal frame and brought rush hour traffic on one of Israel's busiest roads to a stop. Rescue workers said they had difficulty reaching the scene because of the heavy traffic at Geha, a major junction just outside Tel Aviv.

Immediately after the bombing, police began searching the area for accomplices, as several eyewitnesses said that they saw two men who looked Arab fleeing the scene. As of last night, however, no one had been arrested, and police said they had no idea how the bomber reached the junction or who helped him.

Police said that though they had received warnings yesterday afternoon that terrorists might try to infiltrate the Sharon region to carry out an attack, and had raised the alert level in response, the warnings were not specific enough to enable them to set up roadblocks in an effort to find the terrorist.

Batsheva Boshri of Ra'anana, whose soldier daughter Shiran was moderately to seriously wounded, encapsulated the anguish that family and friends experience after an attack. "[Shiran] called me at home and said `Mother, there was an attack, I'm wounded,' but then the call was cut off," she said. "Later I reached her and she said she was in Tel Hashomer. She told me she had seen her friend fall, and asked me to find her. But so far, I haven't found her."

	ZAKA volunteers scouring the scene of yesterday's terror attack at the Geha Junction, east of Tel Aviv, for victims' remains.
	Photo by: Uriel Sinai