AL QUDS, March 14: At least 11 people were killed and 20 injured in double suicide bomb attacks in the Israeli port city of Ashdod on Sunday afternoon, media reports said.
A total of 12 people were taken to hospital with injuries, seven of them in a serious condition. The Hezbollah TV station al-Manar in Lebanon said the attack was jointly carried out by the military wing of the Fatah organization, the al-Aqsa Brigades and the al-Qasam Brigade of the Hamas movement.
Two hours after the attack the Israeli government announced that a meeting scheduled for Tuesday between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Ahmed Qorei had been cancelled.
Reports said one of the bombers made it into the heavily guarded port and detonated his explosives close to the southern entrance gate. The other blew himself up when he was stopped at the entrance.
The explosions triggered a fire in the port, located 30 kilometres south of Tel Aviv. Police said it appeared the bombers had been trying to get near a fuel depot in the port to blow it up.
After the attack, police cordoned off the area and diverted traffic from the port. Two Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Fatah, jointly claimed responsibility for the bombings. The bombers were said to be from Jabalya refugee camp, in northern Gaza City.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the double suicide bombings. A statement by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qorei said that "the higher Palestinian interest demands an immediate halt to such operations that give the Israeli government an excuse to continue with its aggression and in building the annexation and expansion wall at the expense of Palestinian land."
Qorei called on the Israeli government to reach an immediate ceasefire with the Palestinians "to break the cycle of violence aimed at both people." In a separate act Israeli soldiers shot dead three Hamas men who were planting a roadside bomb southeast of Gaza City on Sunday, both sides reported.
The deaths brought to five the number of Hamas men killed in attempted attacks over the weekend, as a leaflet issued by Hamas said they were part of the radical Islamic movement's "strategy" to continue its armed attacks against Israel.
Two Hamas militants were killed on Saturday when they tried to infiltrate Israel from the Gaza Strip carrying sub-machine guns and hand grenades. Sunday's killing occurred on the road leading from the Karni crossing to the Jewish settlement of Netzarim south of Gaza City.
Palestinian Gaza Strip security officials announced on Sunday that they had recently arrested about 140 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for being collaborators with Israel. -DPA
