The explosion blasted my eardrums and threw up a cloud of fine beige sand 50 metres ahead of my taxi. I was travelling towards the sea on Omar Mukhtar Street, Gaza City's main thoroughfare, yesterday afternoon. I was returning to my hotel from an interview with the spokesman of the Hamas Islamic Resistance Movement, Dr Mahmoud Zahhar.
Youths and children who fearlessly rushed to the scene blamed Israel, but several hours after the incident no one know who was responsible. Two people were killed by the device planted in a garaged car, four were trapped under the rubble of two damaged buildings and several were wounded.
A third Palestinian was killed and another wounded during the morning at the entrance to Rafiah Yam, the southernmost Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. A device exploded under a vehicle carrying the men to work in the greenhouses of the settlement. It was a typical day in the life of the citizens of Gaza.
Coinciding with news of the first incident, Hamas's military wing claimed Sunday's carbomb attempt on a bus near the northern West Bank town of Nablus. The movement released video footage of Jamal Abdul Ghani Nasser (23), a first-year engineering student at al-Najah University in Nablus, who died in the explosion, which caused no Israeli casualties.
Dr Zahhar told The Irish Times that Nasser was the fifth Hamas martyr to die since the Palestinian uprising, the intifada, began seven months ago. "Our message to Israelis is: you will not be safe in your schools, streets, buses, anywhere until you tell your leaders to end the occupation." Hamas had trained another five "martyrs" for similar operations, he said.
Israelis should follow the example of the mothers of Israeli soldiers who exerted pressure for the withdrawal of the army from southern Lebanon last May.
"Our martyrs should not be called `suicide bombers' because suicide is forbidden in Islam," he added. Hamas's five bombers have been responsible for five of Israel's 75 fatalities during the latest intifada. Since 1993, 111 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian bombers.
Hamas has rejected the proposal by Egypt and Jordan for a ceasefire and negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Dr Zahhar said Hamas opposed the initiative because it asked it to stop resisting occupation in exchange for negotiations. This proposal equated the Israeli occupation with the people who were resisting the occupation.
In spite of Saturday's detention by the Palestinian Authority of Dr Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a leading Hamas figure, Dr Zahhar said relations between the authority and the movement were much better than during the previous seven months.
An explosion last night destroyed an apartment block at Ramallah in the West Bank.
Palestinian security sources said it killed an eight-year-old girl and a 50-year-old man. They said three more people were injured and another three missing.
