A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded cafe in Tel Aviv's entertainment district this evening, wounding at least 24 guests, five of them seriously.
The blast smashed windows and overturned chairs and tables in My Coffee Shop on Allenby Street, a major thoroughfare in Tel Aviv.
"I passed by there. I heard a loud explosion. I was so scared. I never saw something like this in my life," one witness, who was not identified, told local television.
Assaf, a customer, said he had just arrived at the cafe when the explosion occurred. "There were at least three injured that I helped treat," said Assaf, who is also a medic.
David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, said Israel would take all steps necessary, "using all means possible," to stop the Palestinian attacks. The bombing "is a continuation of the campaign of murder" against Israelis everywhere, Baker said.
Early media reports said the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.
The attacker was identified as a man from the West Bank city of Nablus, Israel TV's Channel Two said.
It was the third Palestinian suicide attack since Wednesday night, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a hotel in the coastal resort of Netanya, killing 22 diners attending a Passover Seder meal. On Friday, a bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a Jerusalem supermarket, killing a guard and a woman shopper.
The Netanya attack was carried out by the Islamic militant group Hamas, and the Jerusalem bombing was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.
AP