Woman suicide bomber kills four on Gaza border

A female Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up at the main crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip today, killing four people and injuring seven, emergency officials said.

Israel Radio reported the four dead were Israeli. The Islamic militant group Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, issued a joint claim of responsibility, according to Lebanon’s Al-Manar satellite television station.

The explosion occurred at the Erez crossing, the main entry point into Israel for thousands of Palestinian workers. However, there were few Palestinian workers in the area at the time, Israeli officials said.

Palestinian witnesses said the bomber was a woman waiting in a queue to pass through to the Israeli side.

A witness said four Palestinian women went into a security office at the border crossing and then came an explosion from inside the building.

“I heard soldiers screaming. The blast was very strong, and I saw one of the women, the last one who went into the room, bleeding from her legs,” she said.

Another witness said an unfamiliar woman waiting with the labourers was walking strangely. When she offered to help the stranger, the woman brushed her off and the blast went off shortly afterward.

The soldiers then forced everyone out and shut down the crossing after the blast, witnesses said.

The blast killed four people in addition to the bomber and injured seven others, who were being evacuated to hospitals, said an official with the Magen David Adom rescue services.

Erez has been the target of occasional attacks during the past three years of violence. On June 8, three Palestinian gunmen from different militant groups, killed four Israeli soldiers in a co-ordinated attack on the crossing point. Soldiers returned fire, killing the gunmen.

On October 14 three American security guards were killed in the Gaza Strip just south of Erez, when a Palestinian set off an explosive device at a passing diplomatic convoy.

The suicide bombing Wednesday was the first since a Christmas Day attack at a bus stop outside Tel Aviv that killed four people.

The bomber was identified as Reem Raiyshi, 21, a Gaza woman described as a Hamas militant.

She appeared to be the first female suicide bomber from the militant Islamic fundamentalist group.

Soldiers often target Palestinian men as potential attackers. Hamas’ use of a woman bomber could signal its willingness to compromise its religious principles in order to more easily carry out attacks.