Suicide bomber kills 9 in Tel Aviv
(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-18 09:01
Israeli President Moshe Katsav appealed to the Palestinians to reject
violence.
"I call on the Palestinians not to show weakness of spirit in the struggle
for peace. We want to believe that the political path of the Hamas government is
not the path of the Palestinians," he said.
Islamic Jihad identified the bomber as Samer Hammad, 21, from a village
outside the West Bank town of Jenin.
In a video released by the group, Hammad said the bombing was dedicated to
the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails. "There are many other bombers on
the way," he said, wearing an Islamic Jihad headband.
Islamic Jihad was behind eight of the nine suicide bombings since a Feb. 8,
2005, truce declaration.
The group's exiled leader, Ramadan Shallah, said Sunday that its militants
was making "nonstop efforts" to infiltrate suicide bombers into Israel.
"The nonstop crackdown against our resistance might limit this effort, but
it's not going to stop it," he said in a statement posted on the group's Web
site. Shallah made his comments at an anti-Israel conference in Iran.
The attack complicated the Hamas effort to raise money for the bankrupt
Palestinian treasury. Hamas is two weeks late paying March salaries for the
government's 140,000 workers.
The U.S. and European Union cut off aid to the government because Hamas
refused their demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to
exist. Israel also stopped transferring tens of millions of tax dollars it
collects on the Palestinians' behalf every month.
Hamas said it would turn to Muslim countries to make up the shortfall. Iran
and Qatar each pledged $50 million to the Palestinian
Authority.
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