ISRAEL: A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up yesterday evening outside a mall in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya, killing himself and two women and injuring close to 30 in a blow to an already shaky five-month-old truce between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Islamic Jihad, the armed group least committed to the truce, took responsibility for the bombing, as well as for a car-bomb attack yesterday in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron, near Nablus. There were no injuries in this attack, which occurred just 40 minutes before the Netanya bombing.
According to initial reports, the bomber was an 18-year-old youth from the West Bank village of Atil, which is located about 13 kilometres east of Netanya.
An official in prime minister Ariel Sharon's office accused the Palestinians of failing to fulfil their security obligations.
"Israel has done all it can to ease up on Palestinian needs, but the PA has not fulfilled obligations undertaken at [ the] Sharm el-Sheikh [ ceasefire summit] and shows no signs of doing so," said David Baker. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack and said the perpetrators must be punished.
Israel's army chief, Lieut Gen Dan Halutz, meanwhile, revealed yesterday that some 30 soldiers opposed to the Gaza withdrawal had so far been disciplined for refusing to take part in the evacuation of settlements.
In another pullout-related development, it emerged yesterday that the army has drafted a "code of conduct" for soldiers involved in the evacuation which allows them to open fire on opponents of withdrawal who endanger their lives, when "all else has failed".