New blow to Middle East peace

Patrick Sawer12 April 2012

The Middle East peace process suffered yet another setback today when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at an Israeli checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip, wounding two Israeli border policemen.

The border policemen were injured by fragments in the arms and legs and were taken to an Israeli hospital in nearby Ashkelon. Their lives were not in danger, an official of the Israeli ambulance service said. There was no immediate report of any other Palestinians hurt in the explosion.

The Erez checkpoint is passed every morning by Palestinian workers who work in Israel.

Palestinian Islamic militant groups have carried out scores of suicide attacks in recent years, killing and injuring hundreds of Israelis. However, the explosions have usually been staged at crowded places in Israeli cities.

None of the known Palestinian militant groups has so far claimed responsibility for the latest attack, although it comes after a leading member of Hamas was killed by Israeli forces on Friday.

Hamas later claimed responsibility for a mortar bomb attack which killed an Israeli soldier, saying it was in revenge for the death of Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a top member of the group's military-wing. In response, Israel destroyed several Palestinian security posts in a missile strike in the Gaza Strip yesterday.

Gun battles between Israeli forces and Palestinians raged overnight in the Gaza Strip, where according to Palestinian officials a teenager was shot in the chest along the border with Egypt.

Today's suicide bombing took place hours before the scheduled arrival of a US peace mission to try to forge a ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians. Former US Marine Corps general Anthony Zinni and assistant secretary of state William Burns are arriving today for a new round of talks aimed at ending 14 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

WORLD NEWS ROUND-UP

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in