An Islamic Jihad terrorist, headed for Israel to carry out a Hanukkah bombing, detonated his hidden explosives belt at a West Bank roadblock yesterday, killing himself, two fellow Palestinians and an Israeli army lieutenant.
The blast occurred south of Tulkarm, two miles inside the West Bank, where the Israeli army had set up one of several impromptu checkpoints after receiving intelligence reports that a bomber was headed to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
A taxi was stopped at the roadblock yesterday morning and the officer in charge, Lt. Ori Binamo, ordered the driver and two passengers out.
One of the passengers wore an overcoat, and when Binamo told him to take it off, he detonated a belt, which held more than 22 pounds of explosives, authorities said.
The blast killed Binamo and the bomber, as well as the driver and the other passenger, who was believed to be the bomber’s “dispatcher.”
Three soldiers were injured, along with seven other Palestinians.
Col. Aharon Haliva, the local army commander, said, “If the bomber had succeeded in reaching the center of the country, the number of casualties would have been very high.”
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing, and Israel’s deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim, said the organization’s leaders in Damascus, Syria, ordered it.
In other developments yesterday:
* Al Qaeda in Iraq said it had launched missiles at Israel from Lebanon as part of a “new attack” on the Jewish state.
The group’s boast, posted on a Web site frequently used by Iraqi rebels, appeared to be the first claim of responsibility from al Qaeda for an attack on Israel from Lebanon.
* Two Palestinians were wounded by artillery fire into the Gaza Strip as Israel began imposing a security “buffer zone” in areas from which homemade rockets have been launched.
* Palestinian police imposed a series of roadblocks in southern Gaza as they searched for a British aid worker and her parents kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen.
* Also in Gaza, a Palestinian police officer was killed in a shootout between two rival families.
More gunfire erupted during the officer’s funeral march, and shots were fired at a police station near the home of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
With Post Wire Services