A 24-year-old Arab woman from Bethlehem was fatally injured Monday when a bomb she apparently intended to plant in downtown Jerusalem’s crowded Mahaneh Yehuda market detonated prematurely while she was priming it in a public lavatory.
Police found a basket of fruit alongside the body, suggesting that the woman intended to leave the explosive near a fruit stand.
The accident averted what might have been heavy casualties among shoppers in the open market, which has been a target of terrorist attacks in the past.
Merchants and customers were alerted by a dull blast and smoke emanating from the lavatory. They found the woman still alive. But fearing she was holding a second bomb, they fled. The woman died soon after the police arrived.
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