after at least 10 people died and 20 were injured in Palestinian twin suicide bombings at Israel’s port of Ashdod, news reports said.
Security sources told the Reuters news agency that Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had asked advisers to decide on retaliation for these first suicide attacks at an Israeli seaport and strategic facility since the Palestinian uprising began, three years ago.
Just before the apparent retaliation attack, which knocked out much of the electricity in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli government announced an indefinite postponement of a summit between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qorei.
BAD CONDITIONS
"I can confirm that this meeting will not take place in these conditions," government spokesman Avi Pazner told reporters about the postponed talks, which were expected Tuesday, March 16.
"A meeting cannot be held in the midst of terror attacks. The purpose of such a meeting was to discuss the means of action against terrorism. Terrorist actions are currently speaking louder than words," the French News Agency AFP quoted him as saying.
Pazner and other officials also expressed their outrage that The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a group with close ties to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement reportedly claimed responsibility, saying it carried out the bombings with the Islamic militant Hamas. There was no immediate word from Hamas, the Israel News Agency (INA) reported.
TWO EXPLOSIONS
The explosions went off just before 5 p.m. in two separate areas of the port, workers said. Port worker Sami Pinto said that he saw smoke from the explosion near the fence of the port facility and in a workshop inside.
"One of our workers who was lightly wounded told me that the terrorist came in and asked for water, and the moment he showed him where there was a tap, he blew up," Pinto told Israel Army Radio, as monitored by INA.
Police said two bodies near the scene were suicide bombers. Rescue services spokesman Yerucham Mendola told INA that "some of the victims were thrown a long distance" by the blasts.
UNUSUAL TARGET
"The choice of target was unusual. In 111 previous suicide bombers, Palestinian attackers often chose buses, cafes and shopping malls, killing more than 450 people," INA commented.
Ashdod is on the Mediterranean coast in the southern part of Israel, not far from the Gaza Strip which is surrounded by a controversial security barrier, which the Israeli government had hoped would discourage terrorists to enter
Israel from Palestinian territories. Israeli Cabinet Minister Yosef Paritzky said the assailants "found a weak point and exploited it.," INA reported. "A port, by nature, is a very busy place," he said. "There are many people coming and going. It is impossible to seal the entire country hermetically."
MORE VIOLENCE
The blasts followed violence elsewhere including in the Gaza Strip where Palestinians said Israeli troops shot dead three Palestinians near the Israeli border.
Israel’s army says it fired at three men suspected of planting roadside bombs, but it did not confirm the fatalities, the Voice of America (VOA) reported. Meanwhile a Palestinian judge citing insufficient evidence ordered the release of four Palestinians facing trial for killing three Americans in a bomb attack last year, VOA said.
The four were arrested after a bomb blast in October killed three Americans in a diplomatic convoy near the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian prosecutors reportedly argued that the men had planted the bombs to blow up Israeli tanks entering Gaza, and had not targeted the U.S. security personnel.
