41 people were injured and a 53-year-old doctor was killed. A 14-year-old boy was left in a critical condition. Nails and screws had been packed into the device to maximise casualties.
Hamas described the attack as an act of 'self-defence', although the attack itself was claimed by a group calling itself the Popular Army Front. The Israeli PM directly blamed the Palestinian Authority, saying it had failed to control such groups. The Palestinian Authority rebutted the accusation, saying it condemned 'any attack on civilians'.
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| Dr Mario Goldin was killed |
Dr Mario Goldin was killed instantly in the explosion. He had been on his way to work at the Meir Hospital where he worked in the orthopedic ward. In the 1980s he had founded a pain clinic at the Beit Levistein rehabilitation centre and had treated the victims of many previous terror attacks. Originally from Argentina, he was survived by his wife and three children.
A similar attack had been carried out in the same town eight days earlier. A Hamas suicide bomber killed two teenagers and wounded a number of schoolchildren at a bus stop. Two years later the town's commuters were targeted again when another Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up at the train station, killing a security guard and wounding ten civilians.
