Palestinian Suicide Bomber Kills a Girl and Wounds 8
The latest suicide bombing came as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met in Washington with Congressional leaders to press his argument that Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, could not be a partner in peace talks because of the attacks in Israel.

The bombings have persisted despite daily Israeli military incursions into West Bank cities to look for militants and explosives, raids that have effectively erased the boundaries between the areas controlled by Israel and those nominally under Palestinian security control.

Israeli forces remained in Ramallah for a second day, surrounding Mr. Arafat's headquarters, and also raided Tulkarm, Bethlehem and Jenin, the army said.

But even as the military operations were under way, the suicide bomber slipped into downtown Herzliya, walking into a popular restaurant.…

It was the first lethal suicide bombing in Herzliya, a coastal town with affluent neighborhoods that are home to foreign ambassadors to Israel. The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing and said it would make every effort to stop attacks on Israeli civilians, but it also demanded that Israel lift its blockade of Palestinian cities and halt military raids.

In a statement from Gaza, the Palestinian leadership said that it "denounces and rejects attacks inside Israel," and that such actions "play into the hands of the Israeli government to strike our people."

"The Palestinian Authority will do its utmost to stop attacks against civilians inside Israel, but these efforts need an immediate lifting of the closure and end to aggression by the occupation army against our people, land, the Palestinian Authority itself and its security apparatus," the statement said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/12/international/middleeast/12MIDE.html