Israeli paramedics evacuate an injured man from the scene of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, yesterday. - REUTERS
TEL AVIV, (Reuters):
A PALESTINIAN suicide bomber wounded 30 people in Tel Aviv yesterday, raising tensions six days before a Palestinian election and confronting Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with a major test.
The bombing at a popular sandwich stand was the first in Israel since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was incapacitated by a massive stroke on January 4 and could put pressure on Olmert for harsh reprisals in the Palestinian territories.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the attack was aimed at sabotaging the January 25 parlia-mentary election. Violence could complicate the poll, in which the militant group Hamas is expected to make a strong showing against his Fatah movement.
Islamic Jihad, which, like Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction, claimed responsibility for the bombing, the first in the Jewish state since an 11-month truce expired at the end of last year.
The bomber targeted a small, open-air sandwich stand on a busy pedestrian mall near Tel Aviv's old central bus station. Posing as a peddler, he walked in and offered in Hebrew to sell the patrons razor blades. Seconds later, he blew himself up.
"His body was blown in half, his head went one way and his legs the other," restaurant owner Arieh Sharon told Channel 10 television.
The blast tore down the ceiling of the restaurant, which specialised in grilled meat and falafel, and spewed debris and half-eaten food in all directions.
Authorities said the bomber was the only fatality but one person was in serious condition. The other injuries were mostly light to moderate, medics said.
"The Tel Aviv terror attack is a direct consequence of the Palestinian Authority's total refusal to take any steps to prevent terror against Israelis," said David Baker, an official in the prime minister's office.
MIXED PALESTINIAN REACTION
Senior Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batsh said in Gaza: "Regardless of who carried out the attack, it was a natural response against the continued Israeli assassination of fighters and killing of innocents."
Several hundred women at a Hamas election rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah cheered when they heard news of the bombing.
But Abbas, who engineered the truce to help smooth the way for Israel's Gaza withdrawal in September, said those behind the attack were not acting within the "rational consensus" of the Palestinian people.
Olmert, who took over after Sharon's stroke and is favoured to lead their new centrist Kadima party to victory in a March general election, could face pressure to respond with a strong hand in keeping with Sharon's military style.
Israel has demanded that Abbas crack down on militant groups, but he has resisted, saying that would risk civil war.
"This attack is aimed at sabotaging the elections," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah. "Those people behind it must be punished."
A Palestinian suicide bomber last struck in Israel on Dec. 5, killing five people in the coastal city of Netanya.
The ceasefire had sharply diminished violence but not stopped it altogether in a more than five-year-old Palestinian uprising. Islamic Jihad carried out four other suicide bombings in Israel during the truce period.
2006-01-19 16:30:52 GMT (Reuters)
