Suicide Bombing in Hadera: A Revenge Attack, But Not for Sa’adi

BLOGSCOOP: Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for this afternoon’s suicide bombing in Hadera’s market, describing the attack as revenge for Israel’s killing of Louey Sa’adi, one of the group’s top West Bank leaders. If this claim is taken seriously, it will fit into the classic “cycle of violence” scenario of tit-for-tat killings: we killed Sa’adi on Monday, and PIJ avenged his death on Wednesday.

However, there is no reason to believe that this attack was really planned as an act of revenge for Sa’adi’s killing. Israeli security forces were on alert for an attack somewhere today – the tenth anniversary of the killing of Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shekaki in Malta – at least a couple of days before Sa’adi was killed. Further, even had we not known that today’s attack was carried out to commemorate a 1995 assassination, it is very hard to believe that a “successful” suicide attack could be organized only sixty hours after the supposed provocation – particularly in a part of Israel that is protected by a long continuous stretch of the Separation Barrier.