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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 19, 2005 |
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A Shin Bet officer was killed and 5 Israelis injured when a suicide bomber exploded during a security check Tuesday evening at a Junction in Gaza.
The officer was identified as Oded Sharon, 36, from Gan Yavneh.
The attack was interpreted as a challenge to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who had arrived in Gaza a few hours before to meet with various terror faction leaders.
The attack at the junction, the main intersection of all north-south traffic in the Strip, occurred after the bomber was stopped for a security check.
The IDF had received a warning about a Hamas man making his way through the junction, but there was no way to determine that the report referred to the man who killed himself at the scene.
The man was first examined superficially and then taken into a trailer used for body searches. The bomb went off, killing the officer, the first casualty of the Shin Bet in four years of conflict.
Three Israelis are in moderate condition and two had light wounds. All were evacuated to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva.
The blast occurred around 7 pm, near an IDF outpost, in or near a structure where Palestinians undergo security checks. The bomber, who was riding in a vehicle, stepped out for a security check and exploded soon after.
The bomb was small. Soldiers and civilians were injured, Channel 2 reported.
The Hamas terror group claimed responsibility. Palestinian sources said Omar Tabash from the town of Absan in central Gaza Strip was the killer.
The road leading from the Gush Katif settlement bloc to the Kissufim Junction was closed.
The blast came on the day that newly elected PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas arrived in the Gaza Strip to try and persuade terrorist to halt attacks on Israel.
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