Woman suicide bomber kills 4 at Israeli border

The woman, identified by Hamas as a 22-year-old mother of two, blew herself up in a terminal where Palestinian labourers from the fenced-in Strip were being put through Israeli security checks before entering a nearby industrial complex. Witnesses said the bomber, Reem Al-Reyashi from Gaza City, was limping when she set off a metal detector operated by Israeli security personnel at the Erez crossing.

‘‘She managed to hoodwink the soldiers by saying she had a metal surgical implant,’’ Israeli Brigadier-General Gadi Shamni, commander of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, told reporters. ‘‘Because she was a woman, a female soldier was sent for to search her. She used this opportunity to enter the building and blow up,’’ he said.

Sources said four Palestinians were among the wounded. Hamas, the main group behind a campaign of suicide bombings during three years of violence, said it sent a woman for the first time because of growing Israeli security ‘‘obstacles’’ facing its male bombers.

‘‘Resistance will escalate against this enemy until they leave our homeland,’’ Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said it had carried out the shooting in response to a ‘‘widespread campaign’’ by Israeli soldiers, who have killed some of the group’s members during raids. —(Reuters)