Jerusalem — A Palestinian woman launched a bomb attack Sunday on a busy Jerusalem street, killing herself and an 81-year-old Israeli man and wounding at least a dozen people. She was believed to be the first female suicide bomber since fighting began 16 months ago.
Israeli police were hesitant to call her a suicide bomber, saying it wasn't clear if the woman intended to kill herself or if the bomb exploded prematurely as she walked along Jaffa Street, the main commercial strip in west Jerusalem.
Medics carry a wounded Israeli among the wreckage left after a Palestinian woman detonated a bomb, killing two and injuring at least 100 people Sunday on a busy commercial street downtown Jerusalem. The woman is thought to be the first female bomber since the fighting began 16 months ago.
In Lebanon, the Al-Manar television station run by the militant Hezbollah movement said the bomber was Shinaz Amuri, a female student at Al-Najah University in the West Bank town of Nablus.
Israel accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of "encouraging terrorism" and said it was prepared to respond to the bombing the third major attack in an Israeli city in a week.
'Half the street exploded'
The blast next to a shoe shop blew out shop windows, set a store on fire and left victims sprawled on the pavement amid shards of glass, pieces of fruit, shoes and storefront mannequins.
"It sounded like half the street exploded," said Hama Gidon, a clothing store worker who was slightly injured. "All the mannequins went flying, and I did, too. People were falling; glass was flying everywhere."
More than 100 people were treated on the spot or taken to hospitals, though most suffered only from shock. Three people were seriously hurt and nine had moderate injuries, officials said.
A different bomber profile
Up until now, only the radical Islamic Jihad and Hamas have sent suicide bombers into Israel, but Islamic law forbids women from committing suicide for any cause. Therefore, Israeli security sources, quoted anonymously in the Maariv daily, said they suspected the bomber might have come from a secular movement.
The paper said Israeli security is rethinking its profile of potential suicide bombers. Until recently, most were young, single, uneducated Palestinians. "Lately we are seeing older, married men and now a woman," the paper wrote.
Palestinian women have taken a larger part in public life in the West Bank and Gaza than in some other Muslim societies, but they have gradually receded into the background during the current conflict as men have taken the roles of military commanders. Only one woman serves in the Palestinian Cabinet Intissar al-Wazir, widow of the legendary Palestinian fighter Abu Jihad, killed in a 1988 raid in Tunis, Tunisia, widely attributed to the Israeli secret service.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, but Israel said it held Arafat ultimately responsible.
Arafat is "encouraging terrorism, he's sending (attackers) to Jerusalem," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "We will continue to systematically dismantle the terrorist infrastructure."
The Palestinian leadership, meanwhile, "strongly condemned the suicide attack" and called on President Bush to send Mideast envoy Anthony Zinni back to the region. However, Bush has been sharply critical of Arafat, and Vice President Dick Cheney suggested on "Fox News Sunday" that Zinni will not return soon.
"At this stage, we need to see some positive signs that his return would do some good. And that means we've got to see some positive results out of Arafat," Cheney said.
Arafat must "make a 100 percent good-faith effort to put an end to terrorism," he said. "So far he hasn't done that."
The Palestinian leadership on Saturday called for a halt to all attacks against Israel. However, several Palestinian groups have said recently that they would no longer observe a cease-fire declared by Arafat in December.
Israel has dismissed the Palestinian cease-fire calls as meaningless and says Arafat has simultaneously been encouraging militants.
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