Sure is a good thing the Israelis withdrew from Gaza to usher in peace in our time, isn’t it? “Israelis Say 20 Wounded in Tel Aviv Attack,” from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
TEL AVIV, Israel – A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a Tel Aviv fast-food stand Thursday, killing himself and wounding 20 people in an apparent attempt to destabilize the region just a week before the Palestinian parliament election.
The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility in a phone call to The Associated Press. Islamic Jihad has been responsible for all six suicide bombings in Israel in the past year, and is the only faction to boycott next Wednesday’s parliament vote.
The bomber, who witnesses said pretended to be a peddler selling disposable razors, walked into “The Mayor’s Shwarma” in a crowded pedestrian mall near Tel Aviv’s old central bus station on Thursday afternoon.
Yehiel Ohana, who works in a nearby store selling nuts and seeds, said the bomber, wearing a black coat and black stocking cap, aroused his suspicions because of his unsteady gait.
“The guy was standing at the corner of the street, looking like he was waiting for someone,” Ohana said. “He swayed strangely. Then he went into the shwarma (gyro) stand, and two to three seconds later, we heard the explosion. Everything shuddered. We entered the shwarma stand, and we saw him lying on the floor, and then we understood he was a suicide bomber.”
Police initially said the explosion apparently went off in the restaurant’s bathroom, possibly prematurely as the bomber tried to prepare the explosive device.
However, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld later said the blast did not go off prematurely.
“He made his way into the shwarma place, deep into the back of the restaurant, not in the bathroom. He exploded himself inside the restaurant itself,” Rosenfeld said.
At the time, most of the customers were sitting at sidewalk tables, relatively far from the bomber.
Well, at least we can be thankful that he was relatively inept.