May 19, 2001 ISRAELI JETS STRIKE BACK AS SUICIDE BLAST KILLS 5

A West Bank carpenter calmly walked into a posh mall (e.g. in Natanyu, Israel) and blew up himself and five Israelis yesterday – and Israel responded with its first F-16 attacks on Palestinians since the 1967 Six-Day War, killing 12 people.

The bomb toll, the worst in eight months of Palestinian-Israeli violence, could have been worse, if a security guard hadn’t become suspicious of the 20-year-old man who appeared to be hiding something as he approached the Netanya mall.

The suicide bombing and retaliation left more than 200 people injured and prompted fears of new escalation today in what Secretary of State Colin Powell called a “terrible crisis.”

Powell urged all world leaders to join the United States in demanding “an immediate cessation of violence” in the region.

Hamas, which claimed responsibility, said the blast in the Mediterranean resort town was the seventh of 10 bombings to punish Israel.

Joyous family members identified the bomber as Mahmoud Marmash, a slim, mustachioed man from the town of Tulkaren.

The blast from the explosives strapped to Marmash’s body killed him instantly, ripped the head off a man nearby, and killed four others.

Word of the bombing touched off celebrations in Ramallah and other Palestinian towns.

At Marmash’s home, joyous family members passed out candy to well- wishers.

“Let us have 100 attacks like this until Palestine is completely liberated,” a woman relative told Palestinian TV.

Source: New York Post, by URI DAN in Jerusalem & MARILYN RAUBER in D.C.