Explosion Rocks Israeli City of Netanya

20/03/2001| IslamWeb

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NETANYA, Israel (Reuters) - A bomb exploded near a school in an industrial area of the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on Wednesday but caused no serious injuries, an ambulance service spokesman said.

A witness, who gave his name as Gil, told Israel Radio that the blast had been a car bomb. ``There was a huge explosion. I ran outside and I saw a Mazda (car) cut in half,'' he said.

A police spokeswoman said: ``It appears to be a terrorist attack.''

A spokesman for the Magen David Adom ambulance service said the blast occurred across from the ORT vocational high school in Netanya's industrial zone.

Netanya, a previous target of Palestinian bombers during the eight-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation, lies about 40 km (25 miles) north of Tel Aviv, and is close to Israel's border with the West Bank.

Netanya's Laniado Hospital spokesman Avinoam Skolnick said four people, all teenagers who appeared to be students at the high school, had suffered shock. No one suffered physical injuries, he added.

One witness said a bus with students had left the area just minutes before the blast.

The incident followed a Palestinian suicide bombing in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The two bombers involved in the attack were killed and two Israeli soldiers were wounded.

Two car bombs exploded in Jerusalem early on Sunday, wounding four people. Almost 70 Israelis were hurt in a Palestinian suicide bombing in the northern city of Hadera on Friday.