From NYtimes

April 18, 2006
Suicide Bombing in Israel Kills 9; Hamas Approves
By GREG MYRE and DINA KRAFT
TEL AVIV, April 17 — A Palestinian suicide bomber carried out the deadliest attack on Israel in almost two years on Monday when he detonated his explosives at a falafel restaurant in Tel Aviv — an act that Hamas, which leads the new Palestinian government, called legitimate.

Nine people and the bomber were killed and dozens wounded in the blast, at a small restaurant that was hit by a suicide bomber just three months ago, on Jan. 19. In that attack, 20 Israelis were injured.

Though the bombing was carried out by Islamic Jihad, a particularly radical faction that is not part of the government, spokesmen for Hamas and the Palestinian Interior Ministry said the blast was a legitimate response to what they called Israeli aggression.

Similarly, Islamic Jihad released a video in which Sami Hammad, 21, from outside Jenin, on the West Bank, said his bombing was dedicated to the thousands of Palestinians jailed by Israel. "There will be more such operations," he said.

Even so, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the attack, reflecting a split in the Palestinian leadership.

Israel said it held the Hamas-led government ultimately responsible. "They are responsible because their leaders are encouraging these attacks," said Gideon Meir, a senior official at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "It doesn't matter which group did this; it all comes from the same school of terrorism."

Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, urged the Palestinian Authority to condemn the attack, while the White House reiterated that it would have "no contact" with "a Palestinian government that encourages or tolerates terrorism."

Israel did not say how it would respond. But near midnight, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop in Gaza City, causing damage but no injuries. The military said the shop was used to manufacture rockets that are fired at Israel.

The bombing is also likely to intensify the almost daily exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

The explosion ripped through the restaurant just hours before Israel's new Parliament was sworn in, and Ehud Olmert, prime minister-designate, told the legislators meeting in Jerusalem, "We had hoped to celebrate the Israeli democracy today in a different atmosphere, and now we are again forced to cope with murderous terror."

At the restaurant, tiles and wires dangled from the ceiling. The street was covered with shards of glass. Blood pooled on the sidewalk and speckled the sides of parked cars.

About 60 people were wounded, including two cousins, David Manshirov, 17, and Jahoun Ismilov, 17, who worked in the kitchen and were also hurt in the January bombing.

Mr. Manshirov said his family, which emigrated three years ago from Georgia, the former Soviet republic, was poor, so he had no choice but to keep working at the restaurant.

The restaurant is on a busy corner in a gritty section of Tel Aviv where many foreign workers now live. It is considered easier for a bomber to blend in with the crowd in this neighborhood than in other parts of the city. The street where the bombing took place, Neve Shaanan, has been hit by six suicide bombings in the past four years.

The restaurant — called The Mayor's Falafel — had placed a security guard at its entrance after the January attack. According to witnesses, the guard stopped the bomber on Monday and asked to see his bag. At that moment, the bomber detonated his explosives, the witnesses said. The guard was believed to be among those killed.

Islamic Jihad, which has rejected an informal truce observed by some Palestinian groups, has carried out eight of the nine Palestinian suicide bombings since the beginning of 2005.

Abu Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, called the bombing "part of the national resistance against the Israeli crimes."

The blast was the deadliest in Israel since a double suicide bombing on Aug. 31, 2004. That explosion killed 16 people in Beersheba, in the south.

The Palestinian response to the latest bombing once again underscored the tension between Mr. Abbas, who opposes such attacks and seeks negotiations with Israel, and Hamas, which now controls the cabinet and the legislature, and has carried out the largest number of suicide bombings against Israel and rejects negotiations.

Hamas took control of the Palestinian Authority government last month after winning elections in January, and has largely abided by an informal truce for more than a year. But the group says it will not lay down its weapons and has not called on other factions to stop attacks.

Asked about the bombing, a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said, "The resistance is a legal and natural reaction to the Israeli crimes, and the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves."

But Mr. Abbas said, "These kinds of attacks harm the Palestinian interest, and we as an authority and government must move to stop it."

The Palestinian ministries, controlled by Hamas, issued no such denunciations.

The new Palestinian government has been in office less than three weeks, but it faces urgent problems. The United States and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist group and are refusing to deal with any of its members, inside or outside the government.

The new Palestinian government is also struggling with a major financial crisis, which has been made worse by this isolation, and has been unable to pay last month's wages to its 140,000 employees.

The bombing brought a new round of Western criticism directed at Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

"The burden of responsibility for preventing terrorist attacks such as this one rests with the Palestinian Authority," said the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan. "We have noted reactions by several Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, that defend or even applaud the barbaric act of terror committed in Tel Aviv today, as we have noted President Abbas's quick denunciation of it."

The Israeli security forces have barred Palestinians from entering Israel since March 11, according to the military. But Palestinian bombers have managed to slip into Israel despite such bans in the past and have frequently struck during holiday periods.

In northern Gaza, a 19-year-old Palestinian, Mamdouh Obeid, was killed Monday by an Israeli artillery shell, according to Palestinian medical workers, who said two other young men were wounded.

Qatar Funds for Palestinians

By The New York Times

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 17 — Qatar pledged $50 million in aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government on Monday, a day after Iran promised the same, a campaign by Palestinian officials to make up for the shortfall caused when the United States and the European Union suspended financial aid.

Arab governments have failed to meet earlier commitments.