While British “journalists” weep for the ailing Arafat, his spiritual heirs continue their bloody work. I wonder: when the jihad is complete and Sharia rules everywhere, where will Arafat’s successors and followers go for medical treatment? Of course, the PFLP has claimed responsibility for this one, and they are nominally a secular socialist group. But apparently all the Palestinian Arab “militant” groups are now signing on to jihadist tactics. From AP:
TEL AVIV, Israel – A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded outdoor market in central Tel Aviv on Monday, killing three Israelis and wounding 32 in the first such attack since Yasser Arafat left the region for medical treatment last week.
The blast came at a time of growing concern about instability during Arafat’s absence. Militants appeared to be signaling that they are setting the pace, not Arafat’s stand-ins, who have been trying to convey normalcy. Israel has said that while the Palestinian leader is away it would show restraint in its battle with militants.
The ground shook in the Carmel Market as the explosion ripped through a dairy store and damaged a neighboring vegetable stall. The force of the blast blew the store’s sign away, leaving loose wire dangling out of the wall. Lettuce and parsley were strewn on the pavement.
Paramedics treated dazed shoppers and wheeled away bodies in black plastic bags. Rescue workers dug through piles of cheese and spices inside the store in search of body parts.
“I saw lots of people lying on the ground, lots of people wounded,” shopper Michal Weizman told Israel Army Radio. “There was a woman whose entire body was torn up.”
Police said four people were killed, including the bomber.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, claimed responsibility in a phone call to The Associated Press. The claim could not immediately be verified.
It was the 116th suicide bombing since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000. In all, 493 Israelis have been killed in such attacks. The last suicide bombing, in September, killed two Israeli policemen in Jerusalem.