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June 20, 2003
Moshav grocer slain by suicide bomber
By David Rudge
The Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up at a grocery at Moshav Sde Trumot early Thursday morning, murdering owner Avner Mordechai, had apparently intended to carry out the attack at a bus stop or in a crowded place.
Police believe that Mordechai, 63, a veteran resident of the small moshav near Beit She'an, was suspicious of the man and, by his actions, caused the terrorist to detonate his bomb prematurely.
'There was a lot of resourcefulness on the part of the shop owner, who unfortunately paid with his life, in that he identified the man as a terrorist and either went toward him or called him inside,' said Northern Region police chief Cmdr. Ya'acov Borovsky.
'As a result of that contact, the terrorist decided to blow himself up at the entrance to the grocery. He did not go into the shop. He had been wandering around outside.
'From this it can assumed that the terrorist had intended to wait to carry out the attack at one of the nearby bus stops or a place crowded with people.'
Northern Region spokesman Supt. Yaron Zamir said police have no doubt that Mordechai 'paid with his life to save others.'
A video tape from a closed-circuit camera, installed to help prevent theft, was found in the rubble of the grocery. The damaged tape is being examined in the hope that it will show exactly what happened.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. A statement issued by the organization in Jenin said the suicide bomber was Ali Ahmed Abarra, 17, from Yamoun near Jenin.
It was the second attack inside the Green Line this week. On Tuesday night, two terrorists from Fatah's Aksa Martyrs Brigades and the PFLP-General Command shot at a car on the Trans-Israel Highway near Kibbutz Eyal, killing Noam Leibowitz, seven, and seriously wounding her sister, Shira, three. Their older brother and grandfather were lightly wounded.
The Sde Trumot attack occurred around 6 a.m. as Mordechai was stocking his store, near the entrance to the moshav. The suicide bomber was carrying a bag that contained what police believe was a medium-sized, but powerful, explosive device.
'A young man, maybe 20 or 21, who was tall and thin with his hair parted to the side walked toward the grocery,' eyewitness Asher Ben-Mussa told reporters. 'At the entrance to the store, he moved in a bit and started looking at bottles of wine. He picked one up and looked toward me... He took a couple of steps forward and then everything exploded. Roof tiles rained down on me and everything was flying through the air.'
Menahem Atias was passing by en route from his home near Tiberias to work in the Jerusalem area. He regularly stopped at the store for a chat with Mordechai, whom he had known for many years.
He passed by but then decided to stop and was reversing into the parking lot when the bomb went off. 'I didn't know what had happened. I thought it might be the something with the car behind me, and then I saw the grocery store collapsing like in a controlled explosion,' Atias said.
'I realized it was a terrorist attack. I looked toward the grocery. Everything was destroyed, and I knew Avner was inside because his car was there. Two people and I started looking. I found him lying face down in the debris.
'I took a plastic table top that had been blown away to use as a stretcher, and the two others helped me put him on it, because I could see he was still alive.'
Atias said he called the 100 emergency number immediately, but there was no answer. The call was timed at 5:54 a.m. He tried again with the same result and instead called his employer and asked him to make contact. Atias said it took some 20 minutes before an ambulance arrived.
Mordechai was taken to Afula's Ha'emek Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
The attack sparked renewed calls for the security fence being constructed along the Green Line on Mount Gilboa to be continued as far as the Jordan River.
Yael Shaltieli, head of the Beit She'an Valley Regional Council, said all the communities are 'wide open' to terrorist attacks, especially those like Sde Trumot that cannot be fenced because they are situated on Route 90, the main Jerusalem-Tiberias road.
'The ease with which terrorists can enter virtually all our communities to carry out attacks, or attempted attacks, as has happened on three occasions is insufferable,' Shaltieli said.
'We succeeded in persuading the government to construct a security fence along the Gilboa, but the security cabinet decided a few weeks ago not to extend it as far as the Jordan, so the valley and its communities will still be wide open.'
She said that the outcome of the attack which claimed Mordechai's life could have been even worse.
'Residents of the moshav are accustomed to going to the store straight after morning prayers at the synagogue to purchase bread, milk, and other essentials,' she said. 'If it had occurred some 45 minutes later, the place would have been packed with children waiting for transportation to schools. I shudder to think what would have occurred.'
Shaltieli said the regional council had sent social workers and psychologists to the moshav to help the family and members of the community, all of whom knew Mordechai.
Mordechai, who is survived by his wife, Shifra, their five daughters, and son, Dror, with whom he ran the grocery, was buried in the moshav cemetery on Thursday evening.
Dror Mordechai told reporters he could not understand how a Palestinian mother who had carried her son for nine months, raised him, and nurtured him could allow him to become a suicide bomber.
Despite the murder of his father, Dror said that 'even though we have suffered a great loss, it is necessary to sit and talk with them and reach an agreement.'
In Memoriam
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