A female suicide bomber detonated herself Saturday afternoon in a packed beach-front Haifa restaurant that served as one of the city’s beacons of Arab-Jewish coexistence, murdering 19 people, including four children.
The atrocity may also have put Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s fate in question. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, but Israel blamed the Palestinian Authority, particularly Arafat for doing nothing to stop the terrorists.
After the last spate of suicide bombings three weeks ago, the cabinet declared Arafat an ’obstacle to peace’ who should be ’removed’ and paved the way for his possible expulsion.
Just after 2 p.m., as dozens of Arabs and Jews were dining at the popular Maxim restaurant, the suicide bomber, apprentice lawyer Hanadi Jaradat, 27, shouldered her way into the restaurant, detonating herself and spraying the diners with ball bearings and shrapnel.
Among the 19 dead were three children and an infant. The intensity of the blast left 69 wounded, 10 of them children. Most of them were evacuated to Haifa’s Rambam, Carmel, and Bnei Zion hospitals, where families came to search for loved ones or identify their remains. Five of the wounded remain in serious condition.
Several Knesset members clamored for Arafat’s expulsion, but the cabinet was not convened, largely because the decision had already been taken three weeks ago. Its execution requires only consent from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, and a few other ministers. Government sources did not expect the action to occur Saturday night.
Mofaz convened a meeting of security chiefs to discuss military action.
The Bush administration issued a blanket condemnation of the terrorist attack, without what has become a routine warning to Israel to reconsider its policies against the Palestinians. The statement also called on the PA to immediately dismantle the terrorist organizations.
PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, perhaps fearing for Arafat’s life, was quick to condemn the terrorist attack. The statement issued by his office called on the terrorist organizations to ’practice self-restraint.’ He said that such bombings ’harm our legitimate and just national struggle.’ The bombing was especially insidious, said those close to Qurei and Arafat, because it came just two days before Yom Kippur.
The European Union, however, took a different tack from the Americans, saying: ’There is an immediate need to end the violence and restore negotiations between the two sides.’
The blast, which eyewitnesses said had ’the force of an earthquake,’ gutted the restaurant entirely. Survivors trying to flee were blocked by overturned tables and the bodies of victims and wounded as they slipped on the gore and food slicking the floor on their way out.
The restaurant has been in joint Jewish-Arab ownership for 38 years. Located by the seashore, Maxim was also a favorite haunt of the Maccabi Haifa soccer team, as well as being one of the proud symbols of coexistence in the mixed city.
While the restaurant had a security guard, initial investigations revealed that he was a waiter posted for the first time as a guard, and was not at the door at the time of the bombing. He was among the three Israeli Arabs killed in the attack.
Within minutes, emergency crews waded through the restaurant and evacuated the wounded, while police sappers checked for additional bombs and Border Police snipers took positions on the roofs of several nearby buildings to secure the area.
In her bed at Carmel Hospital, one of the wounded, Ruth Ginton, described what she saw: ’A minute before I saw them smiling, laughing, and a second later I saw them lying on the ground in puddles of blood, in pieces.’
’Life was given to us as a gift,’ she said weeping in an interview with Israel Radio, ’now I want to scream to the heavens.’
The IDF had slapped a total closure on the territories on Friday, but Jaradat had apparently slipped from Jenin into Israel a few days ago. She was sheltered by locals and driven to the restaurant Saturday by unknown accomplices, security sources said, adding that a manhunt is on to find them.
Despite the relative quiet that reigned for three weeks, the Shin Bet had been warning that the number of terrorism alerts had risen at times to over 40 per day. There were 35 such warnings as of Saturday evening.
Haifa suicide bombings
March 3, 2003 — Fifteen people, including eight teenagers, were killed when a Hamas suicide bomber blew up a No. 37 bus on Sderot Moriah on the Carmel.
March 31, 2002: Fifteen people were killed by a Hamas suicide bomber in the popular Matza Restaurant, run by an Israeli Arab family.
April 10, 2002: Eight people were killed in the bombing of an Egged No. 960 bus en route to Jerusalem near Kibbutz Yagur, outside the city. Hamas again claimed responsibility.
December 2, 2001: Fifteen people were killed by a Hamas bomber who blew up a crowded No. 16 bus in the mixed Jewish-Arab Halissa district.
October 10, 2003
Haifa bombing claims 20th victim
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Lydia Silberstein, 58, died in Rambam Hospital on Thursday, five days after being mortally wounded in the suicide bombing at Haifa’s seaside Maxim restaurant. Her family agreed to donate her organs for transplant. The 20th victim of the attack, she will be buried at noon Friday at the Kfar Samir Cemetery.
October 17, 2003
21st victim of Haifa attack laid to rest
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
George Matar, 57, who died of wounds sustained in the Haifa restaurant bombing two weeks ago, was buried Thursday afternoon in Haifa’s Christian cemetery. Hundreds attended the funeral, many of them clients of the restaurant.
After fighting for his life for 11 days in Rambam Hospital, Matar succumbed on Wednesday, bringing the death toll of the attack to 21. The Matar family co-owns the Maxim restaurant, jointly run by Jews and Arabs.
Matar, a Haifa resident, was maitre d’ and was working at the time of the attack.
