MIDDLE EAST: A Palestinian suicide bomber killed five people in a crowded market in an Israeli coastal city yesterday. It was the first such attack since Israel's pull-out from Gaza last month.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying it was avenging Israel's killing of a top West Bank commander on Monday.
"It was chaos, bodies and blood on the ground, people running everywhere," said Eduard Khanukai (49), owner of a money exchange shop.
Israel has been on edge following the latest flare-up of violence in and around the Gaza Strip, one of the worst since the Israeli withdrawal on September 12th after 38 years of occupation.
Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded an area of northern Gaza early yesterday in response to militants firing a rocket into southern Israel. No casualties were reported.
Hours later, a bomber blew himself up in front of a sandwich stand in the main outdoor market in Hadera, a frequent target of attacks. Medics said five people were killed and 30 wounded.
It was the first bombing inside the Jewish state since August 28th, when a suicide attacker wounded 20 people in Beersheba.
Israeli officials said the Hadera attack followed remarks in Tehran by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, carried by the official IRNA news agency yesterday, that Israel should be "wiped off the map".
"What makes these people dangerous is that their violent language is transformed into violent action," said Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the bombing and pledged to try to salvage the truce he had engineered. "It harms the interest of the Palestinian people and leads to expansion of the cycle of violence."
The bloodshed has threatened to unravel an already shaky ceasefire and casts a shadow over international hopes of a revival of peacemaking.
The fallout from the blast was swift. Israel, which suspended security contacts after three young Jewish settlers were killed in a West Bank ambush last week, cancelled a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian transport ministers.
Islamic Jihad, sworn to Israel's destruction, had vowed revenge after Israeli troops shot dead West Bank commander Loai Assadi, the most senior militant killed since the truce began.
Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, called the Hadera bombing "a natural reaction to crimes of the occupation".
