- Israeli police are investing reports that an illegal
gambling ring in the country is taking bets on the location of the next
suicide bombing.
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- A syndicate in Kiryat Malachi, a town of 20,000 to the
north of the Gaza Strip, is distributing betting slips with odds for the
various locations, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.
-
- Betting on Eilat, a Red Sea resort that has not seen
any violence during the past 21 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting,
is a long shot at 17-1, while often-hit Jerusalem was given odds of 1.5-1.
-
- Bets begin at 10 shekels (£1.40), the betting
sheet states, adding that bets only count for attacks of "Arabs against
Jews and not the opposite".
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- Police have opened an investigation into the claims,
said a spokesman.
-
- Gambling is illegal in Israel, but games of chance are
popular and illegal gaming rooms operate throughout the country. Israelis
flocked to a Palestinian casino in the West Bank city of Jericho until
the current fighting forced the gambling hall to shut its doors.
-
- Suicide bombings have accounted for the deaths of more
than 220 Israelis - 43% of the total Israeli deaths in the current fighting
- and injured more than 1,800. The victims include Russian immigrants and
Orthodox Jews, teenagers at a disco, babies at an ice cream parlour, Israeli
soldiers, and the elderly celebrants of a Passover feast.
-
- A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in an illegal
casino in the city of Rishon Letzion on May 7, killing 15 Israelis.
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- Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
http://www.guardian.co.uk
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