A Palestinian suicide bombing at a bus stop outside Tel Aviv killed four young Israelis just minutes after an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car in Gaza, killing a senior Islamic Jihad commander and four others.
The attacks on Thursday were the first of their kind in more than two months and are likely to lead to a wave of retaliatory violence and damage new efforts to restart the Israel-Palestinian peace process.
Palestinian officials condemned both attacks and called for renewed peace talks. Israeli leaders said the suicide bombing prove why such airstrikes are needed and pledged to continue fighting militants.
The bombing took place during the busy evening rush hour at a bus stop at the Geha junction outside Tel Aviv.
The bomber approached the bus stop and blew himself up, said Israeli Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki. The victims were identified as three soldiers and a 17-year-old Israeli girl. At least 13 other people were wounded.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical member of the PLO, claimed responsibility in a call to The Associated Press, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of two of its members last week. The group identified the bomber as Said Hanani (18) from the village of Beit Furik, east of the West Bank city of Nablus.
It was the first such attack on civilians since an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber blew herself up on October 4 at a restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing 21 people.
Tel Aviv district police commander Yossi Sedbon said a court-ordered blackout has been imposed on the investigation, but told Israel Radio that he hoped ”the [terrorist] cell” will be apprehended soon, indicating that the bomber had accomplices.
A few minutes earlier, Israeli helicopters fired two missiles at a car driving between Gaza City and the nearby Jebaliya refugee camp, killing the top commander of the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza, Mekled Hameid (39) and four others — two Islamic Jihad militants and two bystanders, militants said.
Hospital officials said 14 people were wounded, three seriously.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Hameid was targeted because he was planning a ”mega-terror attack in the Gaza Strip”. Mofaz did not elaborate. Israeli military sources would say only that the attack was to be inside Israel.
The targeted car was burned black, its windows shattered. Nearby buildings in the heavily populated neighborhood were damaged.
However, Palestinian witnesses said the Israelis apparently used a different kind of ordnance in the attack, since the bodies were not burned in the explosion, and there was not much shrapnel.
The raid was the first airstrike of its type since October 20, when an Israeli helicopter launched missiles at a car in the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza, killing 14 people, most of them bystanders.
In that strike, the Israelis were chasing Palestinians who had tried to infiltrate Israel, according to the military.
Such operations in the past, which often cause civilian casualties, have led to revenge attacks by militant groups.
At Gaza’s Shifa hospital, where the wounded were taken on Thursday, masked Islamic Jihad militants promised ”a severe retaliation” inside Israel.
The airstrike and suicide bombing came after clashes during a two-day military operation in Gaza’s Rafah refugee camp left nine Palestinians dead. That operation, which ended on Wednesday, led Palestinians to cancel a preparatory meeting for a planned summit between the two sides’ prime ministers intended to speed up peace efforts.
”We condemn the targeting and killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians and we call on [the] Israeli government to resume a meaningful dialogue to a peace process,” said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat.
The meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia was intended to reinvigorate the United States-backed ”road map” peace plan, which envisions an end to three years of violence that has killed more than 2 600 Palestinians and about 900 Israelis.
The recent lull in suicide bombings had led many to believe Palestinian militants were observing an informal, unilateral ceasefire on attacks as part of Qureia’s efforts to negotiate a formal truce.
Israeli officials said there had been no major attack in months, not because the militants were less active, but because Israel had stopped them.
Since the October 4 Haifa bombing, the military prevented 22 suicide bombing attempts and 13 other planned attacks, Dallal said.
Israeli Health Minister Dan Naveh blamed Yasser Arafat for the suicide bombing and pushed for Israel to expel the Palestinian leader. Several months ago Israel’s Cabinet declared Arafat an obstacle to peace that must be removed, but intense US pressure prevented an Israeli move against him.
Last week, Sharon said that he was considering pulling out of parts of the West Bank and Gaza even without a deal with the Palestinians, and dismantling Jewish settlements in areas Israel vacates. — Sapa-AP