Schoolgirl suicide bomber kills two in supermarket

As if in defiance of Israel's declaration of war on terror, a schoolgirl suicide bomber killed herself and two Israelis in a suburban Jerusalem supermarket yesterday. Another 22 Israelis were wounded.

Family members identified the bomber as Ayat Akhras, 16, from Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, who was engaged to be married. Like two Palestinian men who killed themselves on the way to the nearby Malcha shopping mall on Wednesday, she was a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia affiliated to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

In a prerecorded video broadcast last night on Arab television, Ayat Akhras said she was sacrificing herself for the al-Aqsa mosque, the third most sacred in Islam, and for Palestine. Wearing an Arafat-style kefiyeh, she said: "Now even women are martyring themselves for the Palestinian cause. Where are the Arab leaders?"

She left a mother, father, four brothers and two sisters. One brother, Lutfi, was shot in the head during the first intifada in the late 1970s, and has remained paralysed in the right arm and leg ever since.

The bomber left for a Bethlehem high school as usual yesterday morning, but never returned. Her mother collapsed on hearing of her death, but thousands of residents marched through the refugee camp chanting her name, firing shots in the air and scattering sweets.

Her father, Mohammed, who worked as a carpenter in Israel, said he was proud of her. "She died to avenge our martyrs," he said, "and in protest at the invasion of Ramallah."

She was the third Palestinian woman suicide bomber. The first blew herself up in Jerusalem's Jaffa Road on 27 January, the second in February at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv.

The supermarket, in the working-class Kiryat Yovel neighbourhood, is one of the biggest in Jerusalem. It was crowded with shoppers stocking up after the Passover holiday. Many had come from other parts of the city, assuming that it would be safer there than in the town centre, the target of many recent attacks.

The bomber detonated an explosive charge strapped to her body after a security guard challenged her at the supermarket entrance. The guard and a woman shopper were killed on the spot. Plate-glass windows were shattered, a portion of roof caved in. Produce was scattered, and the ground was awash with white paint from tinsstacked just inside.

One shopper told Israel Radio: "The blast was huge. She was a few metres from the entrance inside."

Despite the deployment of 2,500 police in Jerusalem, the bomber managed to slip through the cordon. All leave has been cancelled because of the holiday emergency, but many of the police were concentrated around the Old City, where Muslims praying at al-Aqsa stoned Jewish worshippers at the Wailing Wall below.

The commercial centre of Jewish West Jerusalem has been almost deserted since before the Passover festivities. A man selling nuts in a shop off Jaffa Road said he had seen only a few customers. A bureau de change closed early for want of tourists. Many cafés, which shut for the holiday, did not bother reopening yesterday.

ISRAEL'S DEADLY CONFLICT

27 January: Two people – one a female suicide bomber – die in an attack in a busy shopping area of central Jerusalem.

16 February: Two teenagers killed and 30 people injured in suicide bomb attack in the town of Karnei Shomron.

18 February: Two Palestinian bombers die at an Israeli checkpoint, killing a policeman.

2 March: Two babies are among nine dead after a suicide bomb attack in an ultra-orthodox area of Jerusalem, in revenge for Israeli raids on West Bank camps which killed 30.

5 March: Suicide bomber kills one person and injures several others at Afula central bus station, above. Less than 48 hours later, Israel attacks Gaza Strip, killing at least nine.

9 March: At least 11 people killed and 50 injured in suicide bomb attack on a cafe in west Jerusalem after Israeli forces kill 44 Palestinians. Israeli jets attack Yasser Arafat's headquarters the next day.

20 March: Suspected suicide bomber blows up a bus carrying mainly Arab labourers near the town of Umm el-Fahem, killing seven.

21 March: Suicide bomber kills three people and injures more than 20 in the centre of West Jerusalem. The attack is claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, linked to Mr Arafat. Another man blows himself up at a checkpointon the green line, injuring one Israeli officer. Israel cancels ceasefire talks.

22 March: An Israeli officer is wounded at a military checkpoint, above, in the West Bank by a suicide bomber.

26 March: Car carrying two Palestinians refuses to stop in southern Jerusalem. Driver detonates explosive killing himself and his passenger.

27 March: A suicide bomber kills 20 people and wounds 130 at a hotel in Netanya as guests gather for Passover. The bombing is claimed by Hamas.

28 March: The Arab summit, above, endorses a Saudi peace plan calling for the Arab world to establish "normal relations" with Israel if it withdraws from lands seized in 1967. Mr Arafat offers "unconditional ceasefire" as Israeli tanks head for Ramallah.

29 March: Israeli troops storm Mr Arafat's Ramallah compound, killing five people and wounding 51. A woman suicide bomber kills herself and two Israeli civilians, and wounds at least 19.