Suicide Bomber Disguised Himself as
Religious Jew
Sun
May 18, 2003 09:51 AM ET
By
Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - It was the perfect disguise in a holy
city where tradition never dies.
Wearing a Jewish skullcap and carrying a prayer shawl, the
Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up on a Jerusalem
bus at the start of the Israeli working week Sunday blended in
with the passengers he ultimately killed, police said.
Bombers have used such ruses in the past, including
dressing like secular Jewish teenagers, slicking back their
hair for added effect.
Boarding the Number Six bus without raising the alarm just
as the morning rush hour was getting under way, the bomber
detonated his explosives almost immediately after the vehicle
moved away from a stop at a busy junction.
Blood and body parts stained the inside of the bus red.
Some of the seven dead, shown in wrenching close-up in a
video the Foreign Ministry screened to reporters at a
briefing, sat with their mouths agape and heads bent backward
over the top of their seats.
It was the first time Israel has shown such emotive footage
to the foreign press.
At the briefing, a senior official accused Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat of charting a "trail of blood" and
pointedly spoke of a day he would no longer be in power.
Arafat has denied fomenting violence in a 31-month-old
Palestinian uprising for statehood.
SPLIT SECOND OF LUCK
A survivor of the blast, Yaacov Engelburg, had just bent
down in his seat to take a book out of his bag when he heard
the explosion that sent ball bearings, packed into the bomb
for deadlier effect, whizzing over his head.
"I think that's what saved my life," Engelburg, a soldier,
told Israeli Army Radio.
He said he was doubly blessed: the explosion blew away his
spectacles, making it almost impossible for him to take in the
bloody aftermath of the explosion.
"I don't think I am going to suffer much psychological
damage, because I couldn't see anything," Engelburg said,
adding that he planned to go to the synagogue to say a prayer
Jews recite when they survive mortal danger.
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