| The girl and her grandmother, who was
in her 60s, later died of their injuries. The bomber died at the scene,
police said.
"I saw a baby that had half a regular face,
and half a face that was just blood and flesh," Shai Gat, a 19-year-old
soldier who arrived at the scene a few minutes after the attack, told The
Associated Press. (Full story)
"The owner of the nearby photo shop was
vomiting and crying. ... There was blood all over the floor."
An eyewitness who gave his name as Haim
reportedly told Israel Radio the attacker struck "children and babies who
were sitting with their parents at the cafe near the supermarket."
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility
for the attack, according to Hezbollah television in Lebanon.
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is a military
offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and has carried
out numerous attacks against military targets and civilians in Israel and
in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. In March, the U.S. State
Department designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization.
Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, denounced the "continuing terrorist attacks" against
Israeli civilians.
"This is intolerable and something Israel
will have to address," Gold said, declining to say how his nation might
respond.
The area had been under a "general warning"
since Monday morning, according to Gil Kleinman, an Israeli police spokesman,
but there was no specific information about a pending attack.
The cafe did not have a security guard,
he said, describing the situation as normal for a small establishment.
The nearby mall did have a guard, and Kleinman said it was possible the
bomber turned to the cafe after seeing the mall guard.
Petah Tikva is about eight miles from the
West Bank, from which a number of Palestinian suicide bombers have come.
Hours after the bombing, Israeli troops
moved into the West Bank town of Jenin. The Israel Defense Forces would
not comment on the extent of its incursion, saying only that an operation
was under way. The Jenin refugee camp was the scene of intense fighting
last month.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat
said Arafat condemned Monday's attack.
"And, once again, we reiterate, we don't
condone the killings of Israeli civilians -- or Palestinian civilians for
that matter," Erakat said.
He said the Palestinian Authority "cannot
accept" blame for the latest bombing, saying Israeli incursions into the
West Bank have undermined Palestinian rule. "We don't have any areas under
our control," Erakat said.
He said an Israeli military response would
worsen matters. "Military solutions will only produce more violence, more
extremism and more despair," he said.
Erakat noted that four Palestinians have
been killed during Israeli incursions in the past two days, including a
12-year-old girl.
Over the weekend, the IDF expressed sorrow
"for the tragic incident" in which, Palestinians said, the girl and a female
relative were killed by an Israeli tank shell in a refugee camp in central
Gaza.
Israeli forces re-enter Bethlehem
Israeli troops raided Bethlehem overnight
Sunday in an operation aimed at the area's "terror infrastructure," the
IDF said, and Palestinian security sources confirmed the arrest of a top
Palestinian militant at a nearby refugee camp.
It was the second incursion into the West
Bank city since Saturday.
Troops also entered the Deheishe refugee
camp west of the city, and Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces
went into a neighborhood in Ramallah and were searching buildings in that
West Bank town.
An Israeli military source quoted in Ha'aretz,
the Israeli daily newspaper in Tel Aviv, said forces drove into Bethlehem's
Manger Square early Monday and blocked access to the Church of the Nativity
because it feared that militants would re-enter the church.
A five-week standoff between Palestinian
fighters holed up in the historic church and Israeli forces came to an
end May 10. Palestinian militants exiled from the West Bank after the church
siege have begun to be dispersed across Europe.
Palestinian security sources report that
troops in Deheishe arrested a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,
Ahmad al-Mughrabi.
Israel considers al-Mughrabi to be one
of the most wanted Palestinian fugitives in the area, linking him to a
number of attacks around Jerusalem. The Palestinian sources said 29 others
were arrested in the refugee camp.
Erakat blasted the Israeli move into the
Deheishe refugee camp, saying the troops were "abducting people."
"They are using this pretext, saying that
they are fighting so-called terror -- actually Sharon's war is to maintain
and sustain his occupation," Erakat said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres described
the Israeli maneuvers as "acts of prevention" targeting "a nest of terror."
Israel Radio reported the arrest of the
sister of the female suicide bomber who attacked a Jerusalem supermarket
during the wave of suicide bombings that began on Passover.
Ha'aretz reported that troops "maintained
a military grip" on the West Bank town of Qalqilya, which Israeli forces
entered Sunday. Similar military operations were conducted Saturday in
Tulkarem, also in the West Bank.
Diplomatic mission
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said
Sunday that CIA Director George Tenet is headed back to the Middle East,
perhaps before the end of the week.
Powell, speaking on CNN's "Late Edition,"
said William Burns, assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs,
also will return to the region this week.
It was reported last week that a trip by
Tenet was put off because of al Qaeda terrorist threats in the United States.
Security cooperation between Israel and
the Palestinians and the rebuilding of the Palestinian security forces
are among the topics that have been mentioned as being on Tenet's agenda.
Tenet proposed a cease-fire and security
plan last June, urging Israeli and Palestinian security organizations to
reaffirm commitments to agreements under the April 2001 Mitchell report.
The Mitchell report calls for a cessation
of violence followed by a resumption of security cooperation, a halt to
the construction of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories,
a denunciation of terrorism and resumption of peace talks.
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