March 15, 2004

IAF strikes Gaza in retaliation for Ashdod Port attacks

By Margot Dudkevitch and Matthew Gutman

IAF gunships carried out missile strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early Monday morning in retaliation for the double suicide bombing Sunday at the Ashdod Port in which 10 Israelis were killed.

The military confirmed the missile strikes, saying the targets were used to manufacture weapons and Kassam and mortar shell rockets. One of the buildings was located in the Nasser neighborhood and another in the Zeitoun neighborhood, Palestinians reported one person wounded from the attack.

Ten Israelis were killed and 16 wounded, one critically, in the Ashdod attack late Sunday afternoon at Ashdod Port, a site considered to be one of the most sensitive, strategic, and supposedly heavily guarded locations in the country.

On Monday morning, 10 people remained hospitalized, one in serious condition.

In the hours after the bombing, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon consulted with his army chief of General Staff over a response to the bombing. Sharon is waiting for the return of Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz from a US trip later Monday to decide on possible larger-scale retaliation, a security official said.

Security officials believe the two planned to launch a mega-terrorist attack and blow themselves up near the port’s bromine tanks, or other hazardous materials stored there. Had the terrorists succeeded in blowing up near the bromine tanks, the effects could have been devastating, with poisonous gases spreading to a 1.5-kilometer radius, killing thousands within minutes.

"We are not talking about a populated area and haven’t ruled out the possibility that they sought to blow up in an area where the dangerous materials are stored and perpetrate a mega-attack,‘ Southern District police chief Cmdr. Moshe Karadi told reporters. ’It could have been an accident that caused them to blow up prematurely," before they reached their intended targets, he added.

Hamas and Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack on Hizbullah’s Al-Manar satellite television station and identified the two as Nabil Ibrahim Masoud and Muhammad Zahil Salem, both 18 and residents of the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. According to initial findings, the terrorists reached the port area in a vehicle. One entered the port area, blowing himself up near the offices of a repair shop not far from the cold-storage warehouse.

The second bomber blew himself up minutes after outside the fence surrounding the port, near an office used by workers from one of the factories outside the port. The roof collapsed from the force of the blast.

Channel 10 reported that security guards discovered a portion of the fence had been cut through, but it was not clear whether it was cut open by the terrorist who entered the port or had been torn for some time. Security officials are seeking to determine how the terrorist succeeded in entering despite the stringent security checks and whether he received assistance knowingly or unknowingly and was perhaps offered a ride by one of the truck drivers or port workers.

Worker Alexander Meistar, who was lightly wounded in the attack, told reporters from his bed at Rehovot’s Kaplan Hospital that some of the workers knew one of the terrorists.

"He entered the building and asked for a drink of water, put his hands in his pockets and there was a huge explosion," he said.

Security officials told The Jerusalem Post that it is possible the two terrorists used fake identity papers and entry permits in order to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip, which would explain why they were not detected by security forces at the border crossing. Another option officials are investigating is the possibility that the two were smuggled via tunnels in Rafah and crossed into Israel in the south along the border with Egypt.

Officials said it was also not clear where the two obtained their explosives, if they had them in their possession when they entered Israel, or met contacts en route who gave them the bombs. But security sources told the Post that the explosives used by the terrorists were different from the type usually used in such attacks, and possibly similar to the "data sheet" plastic explosives used by two British terrorists in the suicide bombing at Mike’s Place last April.

Karadi described the bombs themselves as "unusual" with few of the telltale signs of suicide kits such as wires, shrapnel, or scraps of the device itself.

"It is certain that these bombs were more complex than others we have seen," Karadi told reporters.

The force of the blast demolished port offices just outside the complex and entirely incinerated the bodies of the bombers, said police at the scene.

Magen David Adom spokesman Yeroham Mendola said "some of the victims were thrown a long distance" by the blasts. The wounded were taken to the Barzilai, Kaplan, and Sheba hospitals. Police and hospital officials said the victims suffered wounds similar to those incurred in powerful roadside bombs used by Hizbullah in south Lebanon and contained numerous ball bearings. Security officials have pointed to the growing involvement of Hizbullah in Palestinian terrorist activities in the territories.

Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantissi praised the two bombers, whom he called heroes, and warned that there would be more attacks.

"The act is a present to the Arab world… Sharon brought destruction… no security fence, no terrorism, no US initiative will stop our resistance," he declared. Hours after the attack hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza praising the two suicide bombers.

"They found a weak point and they exploited it,‘ Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky said of the attack. ’A port, by nature, is a very busy place,‘ he said. ’There are many people coming and going. It is impossible to seal the entire country hermetically."

Asked if the attack pointed to a serious security foul-up by the company that guards the port area, Karadi said, "The port is guarded and the head of security is guided by police regarding the measures that should be implemented. One of the facts we must check is how the suicide bombers succeeded in entering the area," he said.

Shaul Rotem, head of Ashdod Port, denied accusations that the attack points to a serious foul-up and severe negligence, and declared the damage could have been far worse.

"The port is considered a high-risk facility and is heavily guarded and operates under the stringent instructions issued by the police. We don’t know how the terrorist succeeded in entering the port," Rotem told reporters.

"The hazardous materials are stored at a distance from where the attacks occurred," he said. Anyone seeking to enter the port must first show his identity papers to the security guards at the port entrance and be issued with a special permit only after authorization is received, he said, adding that no one can enter on foot.

"Not long ago we notified authorities after we discovered that entry permits to access the port had been forged," he said.

Ashdod Mayor Zvi Zilker said he reached the site 15 minutes after the attack.

"I don’t know how the terrorist entered the port; the fence is two and a half meters high, but I don’t think a fence is the only measure that should be relied on to enhance security," he said.

Security officials have warned in recent weeks that Palestinians would begin to carry out suicide attacks in the southern part of the country, as a result of the construction of the security fence on the northern half of the Green Line. Police Insp.-Gen. Shlomo Aharonishky said the investigation would focus on the route taken by the terrorists, and how they succeeded in infiltrating the port area.

Eli Sa’adon, a worker at the port for a number of years who was wounded in the attack, said he was sitting in his office and about to go home when he heard a loud explosion.

"I saw a fire and several bodies lying outside one of the hangars. I raced back to the office and grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the flames. When it was empty I threw it down and raced back to the office to get another one and then I heard a second explosion. I never thought something like this could happen here, the place is so heavily guarded," he told reporters.

Sami Pinto, chairman of the port union, said the force of the blast ripped off the roof and damaged the fence.

"I have been working here for 41 years and never thought such a thing would happen," he said.

In Memoriam

• Gil Abutbul, 31
• Dan Asulin, 51
• Avraham Avraham, 34
• Zion Dahan, 30
• Ophir Damari, 31
• Moshe Hendler, 29
• Mazal Marzianno, 30
• Avi Suissa, 55
• Moris Tubul, 30
• Pinchas Avraham Zilberman, 46

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