Terrorism headlines focused on six suicide bombers who succeeded on three occasions: one outside Café Apropo in central Tel Aviv on Mar. 21 (three dead, dozens wounded); two at the Mahane Yehuda open-air market in Jerusalem on July 30 (13 killed on the spot and 170 wounded; final death toll 16), and three on the Ben-Yehuda Street pedestrian mall in Jerusalem on Sept. 4 (four killed, 200 taken to hospitals; a fifth victim died on Sept. 8).

Although both Hamas and Islamic Jihad took credit, the culprits proved to have been affiliated with the former. Israel traced the café bombing to a six-man Hamas cell from Surif, a village near Bethlehem implicated in six other incidents. The gang's total score was 11 Israelis dead and 49 wounded. By year's end, all its members had been neutralized -- one dead at Café Apropo, the other five arrested by Israeli forces in two separate operations.

There were no specific motives for the three attacks. The Mahane Yehuda incident corresponded with an impending resumption of peacemaking efforts and relaxation of Israel's quarantine policy -- developments that might reduce Hamas's allure in the Palestinian street. Some in Israel thought Prime Minister Netanyahu's claim (on a TV talk show on July 29) to have staunched terrorism since his election prompted Hamas to act just then. Before the country could debate this fully, the Jerusalem pedestrian mall was riddled with gore. The fear that gripped Israel in March 1996 returned briefly, only to fade again as the year ended with no more attacks. Forensic evidence quickly established a connection between the two Jerusalem attacks.

Despite Palestinian Authority (PA) protestations that that the culprits had come from abroad, Israel managed to trace four of the five suicide bombers to Asira esh-Shamaliyya, a village north of Nablus in Area B (under PA civil auspices and Israeli security responsibility). The four had been on a list of 88 suspects that Israel gave the PA in the summer of 1997, asking to no avail that they be detained. One proved to have been the killer of David Boim, 17, near Beit El on May 13, 1996.

Outcomes:
(1) The two bombings produced information about a "new engineer" a successor to Yihye Ayyash, eliminated by Israel on Jan. 5, 1996. Adel Awadallah, believed to have made the bombs used, was released from Israeli administrative detention in January 1996; previously he had served a two-year jail term for Hamas activity. Awadallah ended the year at liberty in the autonomous areas. His mother describes him as a "bashful guy."

(2) On Sept. 4, the pedestrian mall still blood-spattered, Netanyahu promised that "from this moment on, our path will be different." The difference translated into a stronger link-age between a convincing PA crackdown on the terrorism infrastructure and progress on nearly any avenue of "Oslo" activity. International sensitivity to this aspect of Israel's security problems increased briefly and then ebbed as major terrorism did not recur.

(3) On July 31 the director-general of the Association of Contractors and Builders announced that members would stop hiring construction workers from the territories. Merchants in Mahane Yehuda said much the same. Neither followed through.