A 66-year-old Israeli woman has died of wounds from a Palestinian suicide bombing last month, raising the toll to six and making it the deadliest such attack during a 9-month-old truce, hospital officials said today.
Islamic Jihad carried out the October 26th attack at a market in Hadera, prompting Israeli air strikes and army raids in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Fifteen Palestinians, mostly gunmen, and an Israeli soldier have been killed since then. The new death toll made the Hadera suicide bombing the deadliest since two Palestinians blew up buses in southern Israel on Aug. 31, 2004, killing 16 people.
Israel and the Palestinians declared a ceasefire in February ahead of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in September after 38 years of occupation. But hopes of new peacemaking have faltered because of the violence.
Sworn to the Jewish state's destruction, Islamic Jihad has carried out several attacks during the truce, calling them revenge for deadly Israeli raids.
It said the Hadera bombing was a response to the killing of a top West Bank commander. Most of the casualties from the Hadera bombing were stall-holders or shoppers. More than 30 people were wounded.