A woman was killed and 20 people wounded as a bomb exploded at the start of the morning rush hour in Tel Aviv yesterday, in the first such attack by Palestinian militants inside Israel for nearly four months.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the attack was carried out "under the patronage" of a decision by the World Court which ruled on Friday that the West Bank separation barrier was illegal.
Emergency services rushed to the scene of the blast near a long-distance bus stop in Israel's commercial capital at around 7am and sped the badly injured to hospital.
A woman casualty was declared dead on arrival at hospital, police and medical sources said.
"One woman was killed and we have around 20 people injured," a spokesman for Tel Aviv police said.
Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Setbon said that a device had been concealed in shrubbery.
"It was caused by a charge which had been placed close to a bus stop, in the middle of bushes," he told reporters at the scene of the explosion. "A bus and nearby buildings were damaged."
Police and firefighters, using sniffer dogs, were searching the area for any other bombs and methodically gathering bolts and screws which had been packed into the device.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement, swiftly claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to reporters.
A spokesman who declined to give his name said the bombing was carried out to avenge crimes committed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Nablus and in the Gaza Strip, where troops recently carried out deadly raids.
The attack came just two days after the International Court of Justice dealt a stunning blow to Israel by declaring its West Bank separation barrier illegal, and ruling that those parts of the structure built on Palestinian territory must be torn down.
The Israeli government has argued that the recent fall in attacks by Palestinians in Israel is a direct result of the barrier, about a third of which has been built so far.
Sharon made clear at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that his government would ignore the ruling, which he linked to yesterday's attack.
"An hour ago, an Israeli woman was murdered by Palestinian terrorist criminals and other civilians were killed. We are all praying for their wellbeing," the premier said.
"The murderous act that was carried out this morning was the first to occur under the patronage of the World Court's decision," Sharon said.
The last attack on Israeli soil came back on March 14, when 10 Israelis as well as two suicide bombers were killed in the southern port of Ashdod.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS