October 5, 2003	Sunday	Sha’aban 8, 1424

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HAIFA, Oct 4: A Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowded beach restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Saturday, killing at least 19 people, police said.

The attack just before the Yom Kippur fast day provoked an outcry abroad and renewed demands in Israel for the government to exile Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, despite a call by his prime minister-designate for attacks on civilians to end.

“Arafat has become a living obstacle to peace. It is imperative that we get rid of him,” Israeli Science Minister Eliezer Sandberg told Reuters outside the restaurant after the suicide bombing.

The bomber struck as families sat down for lunch on the Jewish sabbath at the Maxim restaurant, owned by a Christian Arab and a Jewish family and frequented by Arabs and Jews.

“Suddenly we heard a tremendous explosion. We saw smoke pour out of the restaurant and the windows shattered,” said witness Navon Hai. “There wasn’t much we could do. Families were dead around the tables, there were children without limbs.”

Wires and roofing material were left dangling. Windows were shattered on all sides of the restaurant and discarded shoes and and bloody clothing littered the nearby parking lot.

The bomber’s severed head with a long mane of dark hair lay on the floor in the centre of the restaurant, surrounded by other body parts and bloody clothes. A black and white chequered baby carriage stood amid the wreckage.

“It was a woman who carried the explosive device. She is in her 20s and the head was blown off,” said police spokesman Gil Kleiman.

Police said the dead included three children and a security guard, and that about 50 people were wounded.

But Israeli Health Minister Dany Naveh said after Saturday’s attack that the government should now carry through its threat against Arafat.

“The criminal attack today is certainly the occasion to carry out the decision of the cabinet and remove Arafat,” said Naveh, a member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s right-wing Likud party.

“It is clear to all of us that this individual is the major obstacle to better days ... we must carry out this decision,” he added.

David Baker, an official in Sharon’s bureau, said that the Palestinian Authority must take responsibility for the attack for its failure to dismantle the infrastructure of armed factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

QURIE’S DEMANDS: Palestinian Prime Minister- designate Ahmed Qurie condemned the blast and urged militants to halt all attacks on civilians. His government is obliged to rein in the militants under a stalled US-backed peace roadmap. “Mr Qurie urged the Palestinian people and all its national and Islamic factions to practise self-restraint and to fully halt these actions that target civilians and harm our legitimate and just national struggle,” his office said in a statement.

“That (appeal) is too little and too late,” said Jonathan Peled, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman. “We have had enough of declarations and denunciations. We need action.”

Mr Arafat condemned the attack, saying it would give Israel a “pretext to obstruct international peace efforts”.

In Washington, President George W. Bush “unequivocally” condemned the suicide attack.

“I condemn unequivocally the vicious act of terrorism,” Mr Bush said in a statement.

“This murderous action, aimed at families gathered to enjoy a Sabbath lunch,” is a “despicable attack” that “underscores once again the responsibility of Palestinian authorities to fight terror, which remains the foremost obstacle to achieving the vision of two states living side by side in peace and security.”

British Premier Tony Blair said the attack was sickening.

France said such attacks were unacceptable, “weaken the Palestinian cause and delay a solution to the conflict”.