Four people were injured, one of them seriously, when two bombs exploded today in the crowded vegetable market in the Emek town of Afula. Doctors at the Afula hospital where the victims were taken said a 65-year-old woman sustained a fractured skull. She was later transferred to a hospital in Haifa. Two others were sent home after first aid treatment, and the fourth victim remained in the Afula hospital for treatment.
Police closed the market area while they searched for other possible explosive charges, and security forces detained for questioning a number of Arabs found in the vicinity. Police said the bomb appeared to have been planted by terrorists.
It was the second blast in Afula in recent weeks. The previous one caused no casualties. Afula was the scene of anti-Arab rioting following the murder of two local school teachers some months ago. Their assailants, from a nearby West Bank Arab village, have been tried for their murder and sentenced after pleading guilty.
Kach leader Meir Kahane visited the town after the incident, and his visit sparked unrest and anti-Arab riots. Israeli and West Bank Arabs who used to work in the town in considerable numbers kept away from the area in the weeks following that incident, but they recently began returning to their former occupations.
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