The Islamic resistance movement Hamas on Thursday claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s suicide attack that wounded 13 people in occupied Jerusalem.
The suicide bomber was part of the armed wing of the Hamas movement, the resistance group said in a faxed statement to Abu Dhabi satellite television.
"The martyr Raed Nabil El Barghouti from Abud village in the Ramallah region managed to break through the enemy fortifications to carry out his operation on the Street of the Prophets in the heart of occupied Jerusalem," said the Hamas statement, cited by AFP.
He was a member of the Ezzedin Al Qassam Brigades, the group’s military wing.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer had already said Tuesday that the suicide bomber was from Hamas.
But when questioned by AFP at the time, Hamas stopped short of claiming responsibility.
Police said the man, disguised as a religious Jew, triggered a bomb he was carrying in a rucksack on his back when he was approached by border guards alerted by suspicious passers-by.
"Policemen saw that he was an Arab who had dressed up as a Jew and stopped him," Jerusalem District police commander Mickey Levy told reporters.
"They prevented a much greater tragedy by stopping him before he could reach a busier area," Haaretz quoted him as saying.
The latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation began in September 2000.
The ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed stands at around four to one.
According to Amnesty International, Israeli soldiers have killed roughly 100 Palestinian children, nearly all in situations where the safety of the occupation forces was in no immediate danger – Albawaba.com
