Suicide Attack Kills 2 Israelis

A Palestinian suicide bomber who bleached his hair as a disguise waded Wednesday into a city park where elderly Russian immigrants gathered nightly to play chess and cards. Standing amid crowded benches and tables, he blew himself up, killing two Israelis and wounding dozens more.

The explosion along Rishon Le Zion’s downtown pedestrian mall was the second suicide bombing in this city near Tel Aviv in two weeks. The earlier attack killed 15 Israelis at a pool hall.

The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, immersed in a coalition crisis, blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the attack and vowed to take “whatever measures necessary.”

The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing. Arafat, under international pressure to rein in militants, has called on Palestinians to refrain from suicide bombings and the shooting of civilians inside Israel.

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli forces killed a top Palestinian militia commander by firing missiles into the Balata refugee camp, near Nablus in the West Bank. Three other men also were killed.

How Israel will respond to Wednesday’s suicide bombing, the second in four days, remained an open question early today. In the past Israel has retaliated with massive military incursions into Palestinian territory, and the army has been poised to invade the Gaza Strip for several weeks. Before daybreak, residents of Hebron reported that Israeli forces had entered the West Bank city.

Mounting a major offensive might not be necessary now, however; Israeli forces surround all major Palestinian cities and most towns, and enter regularly and at will on raids to kill or arrest suspects.

Here in Rishon Le Zion, a suburb south of Tel Aviv, at least 36 people were hurt in Wednesday night’s blast, said police and officials at three hospitals.

The two Israelis killed were identified by television as a boy, age 14 or 15, and a 66-year-old man.

There were unconfirmed reports that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia affiliated with Arafat’s Fatah movement, had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Minutes before the 9 p.m. blast, Rishon Le Zion resident Ariel Maimon, 34, was standing about 20 feet from the small, canopied park. He heard the explosion and ran toward a huge flash.

“There were people lying all over the ground,” he said. “I saw one man in a black suit with his arm blown off. There was nothing I could do. I was in total shock.”

A woman in her 20s approached the man in the black suit, removed her shoelaces and desperately attempted to staunch the blood from what was left of his arm.

“I tried to help people--people were crying,” said construction worker Matslich Salawy, 42, his white T-shirt sprayed with blood. “I helped a boy about 14 who was wounded in the leg. Then he died in my arms.”

Police spokesman Supt. Gil Kleiman said the bomber had bleached and spiked his hair, apparently to “look more European” and blend in. The blast turned the informal, friendly scene to one of chaos, blood-soaked pavement, twisted bodies and the flashing red lights of dozens of ambulance, police and rescue vehicles. On the back side of the garden, bits of human flesh were splattered on a chain-link fence and the facade of a building, where windows as high as the third story were shattered.

Mazi Lavi, a 48-year-old mother of five, rushed to the scene from the mall restaurant where she was eating. One of her relatives was killed in the suicide bombing two weeks ago.

“I am so afraid of terrorists.... I can’t even feel confident about leaving my house,” she said. “I can’t believe in anything anymore. I’m very scared. We can’t live like this. What can be our destiny in this country? Everything has changed.”

Israeli forces, meanwhile, killed five Palestinians on Wednesday.

The best known was Mahmoud Titi, an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade commander in the Balata camp, where the militia essentially was founded. He had eluded Israeli capture for months. Israel accused him of leading attacks on Israelis and described him in a statement as a “senior terrorist.”

Palestinians said Titi, two associates and a bystander were killed when Israeli tanks fired shells on the men, who were gathered in the cemetery in Balata.

Also Wednesday, Israeli border police shot and killed Moussa Daraghmeh, 35, at the main checkpoint outside Bethlehem after he allegedly refused to raise his hands during a search.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.