DEPUTY Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad on Saturday condemned the suicide bombing which left 15 people dead at a pizza restaurant in Jerusalem, calling on Israel not to retaliate. In a statement, released in Pretoria, Pahad said he ”condemned in the strongest possible terms” all such attacks against civilians. But Pahad added that the government is concerned by reports of Israeli attacks in reprisal for Thursday’s attack in Jerusalem. He said the government believed that renewed efforts should be made by both sides to unconditionally implement the various existing peace initiatives for a ceasefire to succeed, and said an independent monitoring force in the area is needed. South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), on Friday called on the government to condemn the attack with the same vigour as their condemnation of Israel’s controversial policy of targeting Palestinian militants for killing. – Reuters