Five Israelis were killed and dozens wounded yesterday when a young Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a shopping mall in the northern coastal town of Netanya.
The attack at the Hasharon mall, the target of a similar bombing less than six months ago, was roundly condemned by Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the US, which said it would only undermine the peace process.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Islamic Jihad which has been behind all suicide bombings inside Israel since the main armed factions signed a truce agreement in March.
Police at the scene said that the bomber had been carrying several kilos of explosives when he was challenged at the entrance of the mall at around 11:30am.
"He was prevented from entering the mall by a policeman and a guard," one police officer, Aharon Franco, said.
Police sources said that a search had been launched to find two cars which were seen driving away from the scene just before the blast.
Apart from the bomber, police and medical sources said that four people had died at the scene of the blast and a fifth died of his wounds in hospital.
Another 30 people were injured in the blast, police said.
A reporter at the scene of the blast said four badly burned bodies could be seen lying on the road outside the mall. Glass and rubble littered the area while nearby buildings had their windows blown out.
Witnesses said that the sound of the blast was deafening.
"My ears were ringing for five minutes and I was trembling with fear, as one of my two daughters was inside the mall," 38-year-old Yaffa Silberman said.
Five people were killed close to the same mall in Netanya on July 12 in an attack which was also carried out by Islamic Jihad.
Netanya lies some 40km north of Tel Aviv and 14km west of the 1967 Green Line which divides Israel from the West Bank.
The blast was the first suicide attack since a member of Islamic Jihad blew himself up in the northern town of Hadera in late October, killing six Israelis.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to the French Press Agency's offices in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The caller, speaking on condition of anonymity, named the bomber as 21-year-old Lotfi Amine Abu Saada, a member of the movement's armed wing who came from a village in the northern West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas condemned the attack as an act of "terrorism" and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
"We severely condemn this terrorist operation in Netanya," a statement from his office said.
"President Abbas has ordered all the security services to catch whoever is responsible for this attack and bring them to justice."
But Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom retorted that it showed the Palestinian Authority's inaction in the face of hardliners.
"This attack is proof that the Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to fight terrorists," Shalom told public radio.
Jacob Walles, the US consul general for east Jerusalem, told reporters in Ramallah that the attack was designed to undermine the peace process.
"People who are behind this attack are the enemies of peace and are undermining the interests of the Palestinian Authority. We will continue our efforts to work with parties to advance the peace process," he added.
The main Palestinian armed factions are meant to be observing a truce but it has been less than watertight.
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