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Palestinian Suicide Bomb Kills 16 in Seaside Hotel
Thursday, March 28, 2002
(07:40 GMT+08:00)
By Havakuk Levison
Reuters

Rescue workers carry a boy injured in a suicide bombing to hospital in the Israeli seaside resort of Netanya March 27, 2002. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the dining room of the hotel, killing at least 15 people and wounding about 100 as they sat down to a traditional Passover feast, police said.
Image Credit: Reuters.

"It is clear the Palestinians are bent on using everything at their disposal for killing and maiming as many Israelis as possible anywhere, any time," said David Baker, a government spokesman.

NETANYA, Israel -- Reuters
A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the dining room of a seaside hotel in Israel on Wednesday, killing 16 people and wounding about 140 as they sat down to a traditional Passover dinner, police said.

The blast dealt a heavy blow to U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni's already faltering efforts to arrange a ceasefire after 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and undermined a peace initiative being discussed by Arab leaders meeting in Beirut.

A policeman stands near a line of bodies outside a hotel in the Israeli seaside resort of Netanya on March 27 after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up, killing 16 people.
Image Credit: Havakuk Levison -- Reuters.

Israel refused to let Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat attend the Arab summit, which staggered into disarray when the Palestinian team walked out saying Lebanon had refused to let Arafat address the meeting by satellite from his West Bank base.

The suicide bomb devastated the dining room of the luxury Park Hotel in the coastal city of Netanya, blowing debris onto the street, leaving wires and pieces of ceiling dangling and chunks of concrete and metal bars across broken chairs and tables.

Corpses were lined up in white bodybags on the pavement outside the hotel after one of the most damaging suicide bombings since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.
Rescue workers clambered through the wreckage and stretchered away dazed survivors.

Israeli media said the bomber walked in with the explosives in a bag as guests prepared for a feast at the start of the Passover, which marks the biblical exodus from Egypt.

"At about 7:15 p.m. (1715 GMT) an attacker entered the dining hall and then blew himself up," said Israeli national police chief Shlomo Ahronishky. "People had not yet managed to sit down," an ambulance worker said.
(More: Reuters-Asia News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

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