Suicide bomber, four others die in Gaza

Jerusalem - A female Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up Wednesday at the main crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing four other people, emergency officials said.

Israel Radio reported that the four dead were Israelis. Officials said seven other people were wounded.

The Islamic militant group Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, issued a joint claim of responsibility, according to Lebanon's Al-Manar satellite television station.

The explosion occurred shortly before 10 a.m. at the Erez crossing, the main entry point into Israel for thousands of Palestinian workers. However, few Palestinian workers were in the area at the time, Israeli officials said.

Palestinian witnesses said the bomber was a woman waiting on line to pass through to the Israeli side.

A witness identifying herself as Amena, 42, said four Palestinian women went into a security office at the border crossing, and as she was waiting outside the explosion occurred inside.

"I heard soldiers screaming. The blast was very strong, and I saw one of the women, the last one who went into the room, bleeding from her legs," she said.

Another witness, who declined to be named, said a woman waiting with the laborers was walking strangely. When the witness offered to help the stranger, the woman brushed her off. The bomb went off shortly afterward.

The soldiers forced everyone out and shut down the crossing after the blast, witnesses said.

The seven wounded people were being evacuated to hospitals, according to Moshe Vaaknin, an official with the Magen David Adom rescue services.

Erez has been the target of occasional attacks during the past three years of violence. On June 8, three Palestinian gunmen from different militant groups killed four Israeli soldiers in a coordinated attack there. Soldiers returned fire, killing the gunmen.

On Oct. 14, three American security guards were killed in the Gaza Strip just south of Erez when a Palestinian set off an explosive device at a passing diplomatic convoy.

The suicide bombing Wednesday was the first since a Christmas Day attack at a bus stop outside Tel Aviv killed four people. -- Associated Press

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