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Double suicide attack stops israeli palestinian summit

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Double-suicide attack stops Israeli-Palestinian summit
Eleven killed in port explosions; Sharon cancels crucial meeting

By MATTHEW KALMAN
Special to The Globe and Mail

UPDATED AT 11:07 AM EST Monday, Mar. 15, 2004

JERUSALEM -- A two-pronged attack by Palestinian suicide bombers in the busy Israeli seaport of Ashdod killed 11 Israelis yesterday and prompted the cancellation of a crucial Israeli-Palestinian political summit set for tomorrow.

The bombers struck the sprawling Ashdod port complex, about 40 kilometres south of Tel Aviv, in the first attack on an Israeli port in the 3˝ -year intifada. Police said the attackers were only a few hundred metres away from blowing up a chemical-storage tank full of bromide, which would have devastated the entire area.

Israeli police suspect the attackers were trying to reach chemical storage containers in the heart of the complex, which employs several thousand. Nearly 20 people were hurt in the two blasts. The victims were all port workers. Ashdod is Israel's second-largest port after Haifa and has military facilities.

While the Palestinian Authority issued a statement officially condemning the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon angrily cancelled his first meeting with his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qureia, set for tomorrow.

The two leaders were to have discussed Israel's controversial security wall and a freeze on Israeli settlements, together with the Palestinian promise to break up the armed groups operating in the West Bank and Gaza.

Officials in Ashdod said it appeared one of the suicide bombers blew himself up next to a group of workers in a warehouse inside the port, while the other set off his belt of explosives next to a shed on one of the main access roads. Firefighters struggled for more than an hour to bring the blaze in the burning warehouse under control. A large hole was blown in the roof.

Police said it appeared the first bomber climbed on his comrade's shoulders to scale a fence around the perimeter of the complex, jumping over from the road.

Local police chief Moshe Karadi said the bombers used an unusual type of bomb and were apparently trying to destroy tanks of bromide or other dangerous chemicals stored in the port, which would have caused far greater casualties.

Late last night, Israeli helicopter gunships struck two metal foundries in the Gaza Strip, in apparent retaliation for yesterday's bombings. Palestinian witnesses said one man was wounded when at least 10 missiles slammed into foundries in the Gaza City districts of Sheikh Radwan and Zeitoun, both Islamic militant bastions.

The Ashdod attack was claimed as a joint operation by Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction. A joint statement issued from Jenin identified the two bombers as Nabil Massoud of Fatah and Mohammed Salem of Hamas, both 18-year-olds from the Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City.

If true, it would mark the first time Palestinian bombers had managed to penetrate the security fence around the Gaza Strip. The only previous breach in the tight security around Gaza was an attack for Hamas by two British suicide bombers at a Tel Aviv café last April. Israeli police said the plastic explosive used yesterday was datasheet, the same material used in the Tel Aviv attack.

The al-Aqsa statement said the attack proved that the Israeli security fence being built around the West Bank would not stop attacks.

"We have managed to outsmart the Zionist occupiers and prove we can reach anywhere we want, wall or no wall, and there is more to come," said a spokesman for the Brigade.

It is possible the two bombers passed through the Erez terminal between Gaza and Israel claiming to be workers. Some 8,500 Gazans are allowed into Israel every day to work. If Israeli officials discover this avenue was used by the bombers it is likely to make it more difficult for Gazans to work in Israel, cutting off a source of much-needed income in Gaza.



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