02 25 05 Suicide bombing at Tel Aviv Stage Club
Surprise party ends in horror
Eyewitnesses give accounts of Friday night’s suicide terror attack in Tel Aviv;
TEL AVIV - “The surprise party organized by Revital Gravesky of Jerusalem for her husband Yaron’s 30th birthday at Tel Aviv’s Stage nightclub ended in horror, as dozens of their friends were waiting for them when the suicide bomber blew himself up at the club’s entrance.
Stage club suicide bombing wreckage (Photo: Ofer Amram)
The couple arrived at the scene a few minutes after the blast.
“I feel very bad,” Yaron Gravesky said upon his arrival at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv in search of his friends. “Eight of our friends are still unaccounted for; I don’t know what happened to them.”
Eran Zorano, 23, a security at the nearby Alenby 2 club, said that when he arrived at the Stage club to pick something up, he saw a white Subaru car making its way in his direction.
“Four or five people were sitting inside (the car). Then they shouted at their friend ‘come here, come here’ (in Arabic). The terrorist got out of the car. He looked at me and blew up. He stood a meter-and-a-half (5 feet) away from me. Suddenly everything was destroyed and it became black,” he said.
Storm after the calm
Meirav Ayash, a 20-year-old soldier who was the first to report the attack to the Magen David Adom medical units, said she and her boyfriend Tzahi drove to the beachfront for fruit shakes.
“Suddenly we heard an enormous blast, followed by the sound of car alarms and a lot of smoke,” she said. “I saw 15, maybe 17 people lying on the ground bleeding.”
/........../
(02.26.05, 09:21)
Five people were killed and about 50 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Stage club on the Tel Aviv promenade at around 11:20 P.M. on Friday evening. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
The suicide attack was the first since the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on February 8, at which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced a cease-fire.
On Friday evening, friends arrived from all over the country - from Mishmar Hayarden, Tiberias, Shlomi, Jerusalem and Kfar Sava - for a surprise birthday party of their friend Yaron Grayevsky at the Stage Club in Tel Aviv. As young men in their 20s and 30s from the Golani, Givati and Nahal Brigades, they met eight years ago in an IDF reserves battalion and became fast friends. Just after 11 P.M., when Yaron was still waiting at a nearby hotel, the suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance to the club.
All five of those killed in the attack were attending the birthday party: Itzik from Mishmar Hayarden, whose wife Linda was severely injured, Ronen, who organized the battalion's reunions, Arik, who was the joker in the group, and Yael Orbach from Kfar Sava, who came to celebrate with her boyfriend, Ofir Gonen, and Odelia, who together with her friend Revital Grayevsky, organized the surprise party for Yaron. Fifty people were wounded.
The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. IDF sources said the cell that dispatched the suicide bomber, Abdallah Badran, 21, a student from the village of Deir al Ghusun near Tul Karm, received its instructions directly from Damascus.
Is Hizbullah behind attack?
Security officials estimate Lebanese terror group involved in Tel Aviv attack, an assessment shared by Palestinian Authority officials
By Hanan Greenberg and Ali Waked
TEL AVIV - Hizbullah terrorists may have been involved in carrying out the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv Friday, Israeli and Palestinian officials say.
A Hizbullah source in Beirut, however, denied his group was connected to the attack, which claimed the lives of at least four people.
Security officials estimate that several terror groups may have been involved in perpetrating the attack. Earlier, both the Islamic Jihad and the Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Meanwhile, Fatah and Islamic Jihad members fired shots in the air in celebration following the attack.
Officials say they are convinced the terrorist came from the northern West Bank and estimated the bomber came from the town of Tul Karem. The investigation, however, is in early stages and details are still scant.
Recently, security officials warned of the growing Hizbullah involvement in attempts to carry out attacks in Israel. The group reportedly offered large sums of money to terrorists willing to target Israel.
The attack took place as Israel was in the process of lifting restrictions on the Palestinians and allowing freer passage through the West Bank. Security officials will be checking whether the relaxed security procedures helped terrorists carry out the attack.
'Foreign hands were involved'
The Palestinian Authority was quick to condemn the bombing and said the Palestinian government should not be held responsible.
There is no room for sanctions against the Authority or freezing contacts between the two sides, spokesman Saeb Erekat said.
Palestinian sources said the Islamic Jihad or any other Palestinian group have no interest in carrying out such an attack at this time.
"Foreign hands were involved in the attack," a PA source told Ynet.
Other senior Palestinian officials told Ynet they tend to agree with Israeli estimates regarding Hizbullah involvement in the bombing.
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian security official told Ynet that an investigation into the attack has already been launched.
"The security apparatuses…would act to detain any Palestinian element involved in the attack, if it turns out Palestinians were indeed behind it," he said.
Eyewitnesses give accounts of Friday night’s suicide terror attack in Tel Aviv;
TEL AVIV - “The surprise party organized by Revital Gravesky of Jerusalem for her husband Yaron’s 30th birthday at Tel Aviv’s Stage nightclub ended in horror, as dozens of their friends were waiting for them when the suicide bomber blew himself up at the club’s entrance.
Stage club suicide bombing wreckage (Photo: Ofer Amram)
The couple arrived at the scene a few minutes after the blast.
“I feel very bad,” Yaron Gravesky said upon his arrival at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv in search of his friends. “Eight of our friends are still unaccounted for; I don’t know what happened to them.”
Eran Zorano, 23, a security at the nearby Alenby 2 club, said that when he arrived at the Stage club to pick something up, he saw a white Subaru car making its way in his direction.
“Four or five people were sitting inside (the car). Then they shouted at their friend ‘come here, come here’ (in Arabic). The terrorist got out of the car. He looked at me and blew up. He stood a meter-and-a-half (5 feet) away from me. Suddenly everything was destroyed and it became black,” he said.
Storm after the calm
Meirav Ayash, a 20-year-old soldier who was the first to report the attack to the Magen David Adom medical units, said she and her boyfriend Tzahi drove to the beachfront for fruit shakes.
“Suddenly we heard an enormous blast, followed by the sound of car alarms and a lot of smoke,” she said. “I saw 15, maybe 17 people lying on the ground bleeding.”
/........../
(02.26.05, 09:21)
Five people were killed and about 50 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Stage club on the Tel Aviv promenade at around 11:20 P.M. on Friday evening. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
The suicide attack was the first since the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on February 8, at which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced a cease-fire.
On Friday evening, friends arrived from all over the country - from Mishmar Hayarden, Tiberias, Shlomi, Jerusalem and Kfar Sava - for a surprise birthday party of their friend Yaron Grayevsky at the Stage Club in Tel Aviv. As young men in their 20s and 30s from the Golani, Givati and Nahal Brigades, they met eight years ago in an IDF reserves battalion and became fast friends. Just after 11 P.M., when Yaron was still waiting at a nearby hotel, the suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance to the club.
All five of those killed in the attack were attending the birthday party: Itzik from Mishmar Hayarden, whose wife Linda was severely injured, Ronen, who organized the battalion's reunions, Arik, who was the joker in the group, and Yael Orbach from Kfar Sava, who came to celebrate with her boyfriend, Ofir Gonen, and Odelia, who together with her friend Revital Grayevsky, organized the surprise party for Yaron. Fifty people were wounded.
The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. IDF sources said the cell that dispatched the suicide bomber, Abdallah Badran, 21, a student from the village of Deir al Ghusun near Tul Karm, received its instructions directly from Damascus.
Is Hizbullah behind attack?
Security officials estimate Lebanese terror group involved in Tel Aviv attack, an assessment shared by Palestinian Authority officials
By Hanan Greenberg and Ali Waked
TEL AVIV - Hizbullah terrorists may have been involved in carrying out the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv Friday, Israeli and Palestinian officials say.
A Hizbullah source in Beirut, however, denied his group was connected to the attack, which claimed the lives of at least four people.
Security officials estimate that several terror groups may have been involved in perpetrating the attack. Earlier, both the Islamic Jihad and the Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Meanwhile, Fatah and Islamic Jihad members fired shots in the air in celebration following the attack.
Officials say they are convinced the terrorist came from the northern West Bank and estimated the bomber came from the town of Tul Karem. The investigation, however, is in early stages and details are still scant.
Recently, security officials warned of the growing Hizbullah involvement in attempts to carry out attacks in Israel. The group reportedly offered large sums of money to terrorists willing to target Israel.
The attack took place as Israel was in the process of lifting restrictions on the Palestinians and allowing freer passage through the West Bank. Security officials will be checking whether the relaxed security procedures helped terrorists carry out the attack.
'Foreign hands were involved'
The Palestinian Authority was quick to condemn the bombing and said the Palestinian government should not be held responsible.
There is no room for sanctions against the Authority or freezing contacts between the two sides, spokesman Saeb Erekat said.
Palestinian sources said the Islamic Jihad or any other Palestinian group have no interest in carrying out such an attack at this time.
"Foreign hands were involved in the attack," a PA source told Ynet.
Other senior Palestinian officials told Ynet they tend to agree with Israeli estimates regarding Hizbullah involvement in the bombing.
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian security official told Ynet that an investigation into the attack has already been launched.
"The security apparatuses…would act to detain any Palestinian element involved in the attack, if it turns out Palestinians were indeed behind it," he said.
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